Anger was the first thing artist Ruby Subramaniam felt when she read a vigilante group's threat to use aerosol spray paint on "inappropriately dressed" women at Thaipusam events.

Instead of stewing in her anger, the self-taught artist decided to do something about it.

She reached out to friends whom she knew, had also been vocal against the vigilante group and proposed an art project titled "This Body Is Mine", where she painted women to symbolise Hindu goddesses instead.

"It started out in the beginning as something to poke fun (at the vigilante group).

"If you're going to spray paint us, might as well I paint on women's bodies because at least it will be prettier," Ruby said to Malaysiakini in an interview at Talent Lounge in Damansara yesterday.