CCC's Street Art Contest #185, Graffiti of Vasilyevsky Island

This story begins the moment I was walking on Vasilyevsky Island and saw street art done in blue colours on the blank wall of a utility annex to an apartment building. "Great job!" - I thought. "But one job for a full post won't be enough. I should take a walk around the neighbouring yards and look for some more graffiti."

As it turned out, that was an easy task only in my imagination. Everywhere I turned, I saw only perfectly clean walls with even colouring. These walls looked fresh - but it seemed that street artists had decided that such a nature was not too suitable for realising their artistic intentions. To be honest, I was somewhat surprised. I had assumed that finding some drawings on the walls of garages or other outbuildings would not be difficult.

Eventually I reached the garden on the 15th line of Vasilievsky Island. This garden appeared spontaneously in an old lane. Once upon a time there were several small wooden dwelling houses standing here. Over time, the owners of these houses moved away, and the old houses, which had become dilapidated and of little use, were dismantled. Usually such plots are quickly built up with multi-storey buildings. But in this place the well-established system failed. The old houses were replaced by an urban garden.

For me, this garden was interesting primarily because it is adjacent to the blind wall of the building, which has long been the official wall for graffiti. In different years I have found and photographed quite a few interesting works here. And this time I saw a new work again. The manner of the artist seemed familiar to me. I got closer and saw the signature - it was by the same artist, Lu Blue.

The other two graffiti on the wall nearby I had seen and photographed before. But I photographed them again and noticed that the portrait of the girl with red hair was also the work of Lu Blue. I was intrigued and undertook a search for the author on social media. Soon I found the artist, and learnt some details of her creative biography. The artist's name is Lyubov Tyulkina, the "Lu" in the creative pseudonym is an abbreviation of the name Lyubov.

As it turned out, I have met the works of this author before. For example, last year I saw an absolutely wonderful portrait of Mikhail Gorshenev in the courtyard of the Palace of Culture, where his rehearsal ground was located. Mikhail Gorshenev is the founder of the legendary punk rock band "King and Shute". Unfortunately, the free passage to the courtyard is closed, and I had to limit myself to a photo taken through the window from the lobby of the building at that time. I hope one day to find an opportunity to photograph this graffiti from a better angle, but right now I can supplement my story with shots taken from the window.