The Next Generation: Lilly Lou
Part 5 of our series on incredible new street artists that get an invisible hand from those that came before. See our previous pieces on SAMO/Basquiat, pioneering street artists, and profiles on Amara Por Dios and Felipe Pantone. And check back tomorrow for more.
Lucinda Ireland aka Lilly Lou is a twentysomething, owl-obsessed artist who lives in London and has a “huge passion for typography.” A former graphic designer at a branding firm, LILLY has abandoned the computer for spray paint and now spends the time advertising her name on walls, doing commissions, and making art.
Her crisp and distinct script letters stand out amongst the abundant, more image-based street art that covers East London (and other areas). She recently collaborated with graffiti artist GARY Stranger of MSK fame on a wall in Shoreditch. It reads: “No Good Reason.” Other notable pieces of hers include a neon-flourescent light-looking “Love Harder,” and a site specific one in Brixton: “Stop the Evictions.”
In an interview, Lilly Lou said she was motivated to start expressing herself in public after seeing a misogynistic poster that read: “Take me back to when men were typographers and women were grateful.” Like street art and graffiti, typography has historically been a craft practiced by men. “I think it comes from the roots of traditional typography — when it was just literally a male’s job to cast and set type with it being heavy to lift and carry around the workshops,” she explained. “I think that tradition has simply stuck a little.”
When LILLY first started spray painting, she immediately became “addicted,” and found it to be a very necessary outlet. “It gets me away from my desk, makes me feel productive and creative, and most of all I love bringing my illustrations to life.”
You can follow Lilly Lou on Instagram and Facebook
