Mexico City based artist Smithe just tackled this massive wall in his hometown. "Ella" is the title of this piece, which means "She" and he portrayed the side face of a lady as a homage to all the hardworking, strong and independent women of Mexico city.
Images by Francisco Betanzos
Well-known for his male characters, Smithe chose to depict a woman for the first time with this piece entiteld "Ella," or "she" in spanish. This piece is a milestone of his career and one of Smithe’s biggest murals located in his hometown. He definetly razzle-dazzled with his new color palette, which is increasingly sophisticated, but also preserved his traditional mastery with the brush and spray paint.
This mural was commissioned by the Mexican Institute of Youth in Metro Salto del Agua which is a metro (subway) station located in the Cuauhtémoc borough in the centre of Mexico City.
British novelist Doris Lessing once wrote: "In the last generation women have become what is known as free. And I don’t want to get into an argument about how free they are; that’s not the point. The point is they’re still fighting battles to get free, and rightly."
From Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz to Marie Collier, Jane Austen, Virginia Wolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Susan Sontag, Katherine Kuh, Banana Yoshimoto, Miranda July, Lena Dunham, to amazing female artists like Miss Van, Olek, Maya Hayuk, Vexta, Lauren YS, Tatiana Suárez, Paola Delfin to all those strong women out there...something is completely true, when you educate a woman; you educate a generation. And this is a small tribute to all those women who have broken through the glass ceiling while they are creating strong voices, and new opportunites for the future female generations.
#TheFutureIsFemale
—Enriqueta Arias