For the second year in a row, artistically-minded young people attending the summer camp at the Valjala Youth Technical Club are trying their hand at graffiti.

"I painted a Smurf at last year's summer camp. It was my first piece of work and it's stayed with me ever since. I got a new nickname because of it and now they call me Smurf here at the camp," said Loona-Maria, who is now creating graffiti for the second successive year.

Their instructor, Annikki Aruväli, is performing more of a consultancy role at the camp. Everything that goes up on the walls comes from the young people themselves.

"Of the young people who are here now, only three of them have only tried this a little bit before, the others haven't done any," Aruväli said. "But the passion is there. I know some will look at this a bit critically and ask if it is art or not. But I think that giving young people a safe environment to create, to express themselves and to put out messages to society about issues that concern them is art and that is important," she added.

In fact, this kind of creative endeavor involving Saaremaa's young people in Saaremaa may provide the spark to inject some zest into other grey spots around the island.

"We've already been offered those (opportunities). People have said 'listen, as you're doing this kind of thing, maybe you could come and do it for us.' In that sense, I guess there is no shortage of possible places," said Mehis Peegel, head of the Valjala Youth Technical Club.

"We're going to start by painting a phoenix on the wall," said Sebastien, one of the youngsters involved. "The plans are all in place. We thought we'd make a phoenix, then some plants would come climbing up and now we're painting the wall black," he said.

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