Sofia Maldonado, mid-stroke on her mural protest against domestic violence, at Los Muros Hablan

GUARDIAN PHOTO BY CAITLIN DONOHUE

Her new canvas work also bears the language of graffiti, the strokes, the characters. But as a medium — her work's not really about "getting up" anymore. She hasn't rejected the bold artistic mark that you have to have if you paint in the streets, but you get a sense that Maldonado knows that audacity's a tool, a microphone you use, not an end in itself.

She won't really stand for all my editorializing. Actually, she kind of wanted me to shut up about her being a female role model. Her feminism is hard to describe in a 745-word article.

"You have to know it's a male's world, like any other profession," she tells me, shrugging off all my questions about her take on the street art gender divide. "You gotta be strong."

But one can't help but read into her focus when it comes to education. "I don't feel like I'm representing," she concludes. "But I do feel like I need to set an example."