Liisa Kruusmägi is a color bomb creator – an Estonian artist whose paintings and illustrations catch an eye with bright and joyful images. Her hedonistic, naive and funny storytelling twist of everyday life will blow away a bad mood and inject fun into veins instead.
"Balearic Liisa", exhibition at Stella Soomlais Studio (28.04-13.05.2022)
Liisa has been a long-time friend to the leather studio with a history of many previous exhibitions in our old room. So it was an easy decision to reach out to her and ask for a collaboration as we are sure that it's a good fit – who would not want to carry such a positive message on her shoulders?
"Balearic Liisa", exhibition at Stella Soomlais Studio (28.04-13.05.2022)
Liisa has said that she is inspired by people; especially by their diversity and authenticity. At the same time she draws inspiration from her time in solitude where she lets herself wander away in dreams. When it was time to decide what to draw on the bags the decision was easy - people. One bag has many faces on it and another one shows a girl with her head on the clouds. Liisa also gets her inspiration from traveling, from mysterious exotic places and life experiences. Nature, ocean, jungle - there came the third bag with plants and of course a hidden face. The fourth bag is about a woman who is drowned in her thoughts, in the chaos of life. And who wouldn’t like furry pets that are loyal, cute and soft that you can hug and pet. 😀 A true match for a cat fan.
Liisa describes the work process as an exciting and fun experience. To come up with characters and stories that would look cool on the bags is one part but there is also the leather surface that needs to be considered. Since the leather surface is reljef it directed Liisa to bigger surfaces and less details. In that way the color spots also speak the same language as Liisa’s art where color and surface start to work together and the visual works even when looking from far.
The model of the 5 art bags is Undercover Lover that is part of our standard collection. Most of the bag has been made out of our standard vegetable tanned leather, but the flap with Liisa’s painting on it is the leftover material of Samelin’s footwear factory. The latter is chrome tanned coated leather so it is perfect for acrylic painting as it anyway has no natural finish in the first place – using it as canvas for an art project adds value and saves the piece from going to the landfill and prolongs the life of the material.
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