Graffiti artists will follow some rules. Don’t go over someone else’s work, unless you want trouble; if someone uses a marker, you can go over them with spray paint; if it’s illegal, don’t give out their government name — Kathleena Howie, better known as Lady K Fever, explains the guidelines.

“Are there rules? Yes, there are. Do people pay attention to them? Not so much,” said the graffiti artist responsible for the mural at Masterworks Museum.

“If you have something on the street, you just have to accept that people are gonna put their hands on it,” she said.

“We’re very tactile. That’s why in a museum, they tell you not to touch because you actually do want to touch. You want to feel it. You want to know what it is.”

She painted the piece as their artist in residence six years ago. This summer she has returned to restore the faded artwork and lead their summer programme.

“I appreciate that Tom [Butterfield] and Masterworks has brought me back to restore,” she said.

“The fact that we have kids that worked on the mural six years ago, and they’re still excited and working on it every day is incredible because it just shows they really want to do it.”

The fact that her artwork remains at the Botanical Gardens has been a huge boost for the artist.

“A lot of street artists, like Bushwick collective, would have muralists come and paint and then have a party to celebrate.

“I said, us graffiti artists need to start putting in place the same value on our work because everyone treats it like it’s temporary.”

To that end, she co-founded The Bronx Graffiti Art Gallery in 2014 to “put value to graffiti”.

“The museum is the world, the streets, the city, wherever and the gallery is the artwork on the walls.”

Another project, Graffiti Herstory, aims to highlight the living history of female graffiti artists.

She said that men and women “live in two different worlds”.

“The biggest issue with hip- hop is it’s just so male dominated. I’m looking at her story, which is not really written.”

The mother-of-two began her career as an educator with the Bronx Museum 13 years ago, after being invited as a guest artist.

Her graffiti career began in Vancouver in 1991.

The Canadian artist was part of the Riot Grrrl movement and worked part time at a hip-hop nightclub.

She first touched spray paint when she and her friends went “bombing”.

“We went down to Seattle to see Bikini Kill, L7, all those bands,” she remembered.

“The boys would never let us skate in the skate pools. We tagged it all up and painted in it and I fell in love with spray paint. That was it.”

For ten years, she did illegal graffiti.

“I didn’t know to ask for permission. I was just writing my name. It was like kindergarten, you have to learn.”

Hip-hop brought her to New York. She wrote for Germany’s Backspin Hip Hop magazine and travelled to the city regularly to gather stories before moving permanently in 2004.

“If you’re involved with hip- hop, at one point you have to go to New York. And you have to go to the Bronx,” she said.

She said she would love the opportunity to create “a real graffiti piece” on the island.

Though 2011 was her first trip to Bermuda, she likes to joke that she was conceived here.

“My parents loved Bermuda, it was one of their favourite places in the world.

“It was always a very special place for my family,” she said.

She makes a living too through her commercial work, creating corporate logos and artwork for businesses as well as interior design, scenic murals and art direction.

She did the artwork for a posthumous video for rapper Prodigy.

She was featured in Nicholas Ganz’s book Graffiti Women and edited another of his books, Street Messages, on graffiti culture.

The museum educator has implemented many programmes in the city, working with more that 150,000 children over the past 13 years.

She teaches the children with a method she calls “Call and Response”.

“The kids watch me and then they get to try, she explained. “I wanted to get back to what made me fall in love with painting on the street, which was seeing other artists do it.

“There’s a certain level of confidence that comes with the kids when they get to see it and they get to see their work.

“It’s very collaborative. A lot of kids have a hard time working with each other, so this forces them to work together, to work on their leadership skills, critical thinking, problem solving, all that they need.

“All it is is painting, but life lessons come with it as well.”

“What I want kids to walk away with is understanding themselves better,” she added.

“Learning how they learn, how they play. It’s allowing yourself to play and understand how you overstand things.”

• To find out more about the summer programme and workshops, contact Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art at (441) 299-4000 or visit ladykfever.com