User:IRLhuman/sandbox

KASHINK is a female graffiti artist and social activist, who was born and raised in Paris, France.

Early Life
Kashink has Spanish and Slovakian origins. Her first exposure to graffiti was while growing up in La Banlieue, a council housing estate in the South of Paris, France.

Influences
Comic book art has served as a source of inspiration throughout Kashinks career. Her graffiti name, Kashink, is an onomatopoeic word that is reminiscent of a sound action from the American comic books she read as a child. A diverse range of artists directly influence her work, these include: Frida Kahlo, Gilbert and George, Keith Haring and Charles Burns.

Work
Kashink has traveled the globe, working on pieces in The United States, Britain, Spain, Canada and Germany. Her signature painting style of thick lines and vivid colours is inspired by her travels: she pulls influence from traditional crafts and folklore from around the world. Kashink experiments with different forms of gender representation, and she considers her existence as an extension of her artwork. She often wears a painted on moustache to underline the absurdity of traditional female makeup. Kashink paints mostly male characters, placing them into atypical situations to challenge masculine aesthetic codes

Social Activism
Most notably, Kashink created two hundred murals to support the cause of Marriage Equality in France. She titled the series "50 Cakes of Gay."