Leanna

“Allow me to take you away from the noise and stress of the day, immersed in the quiet space of being present.”

I did not choose art as much as it chose me. After years of pursuing other creative careers in search of something sustainable, I finally opened up to what my heart had been telling me all along. Hawai’i has brought my deepest artistic dreams to life. 

Hawai’i: Conceived from the core of the earth and thriving, ever changing by the water that surrounds it; this is not unlike where my own artistic energy comes from…. deep within but transforming by the natural elements that demand my attention. Every piece is a unique aspect of nature, working to translate the energy I feel from that element and connect people to what is quickly being taken for granted.

As I begin each piece, I imagine the scene that awaits the final work. With a background in interior design, my intent is to enrich the spaces that inspire the people who live, work and play there. I am able to do this most powerfully through art. Composition, color and energy command my focus through the process. Always enamored by the elements, I’ve found that by incorporating them in subtle ways – lava aggregate, crushed sea glass, coral, sand, and washed up debris – there is a connection made beyond what can be achieved by brushstrokes alone. My pieces add a tactile presence and a natural dimension that is often lost in our increasingly digital world. 

This path for me is a dedicated one and as an original artist, I will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible.

Through art, I hope to connect people to a moment they shared in nature that brought them a level of clarity and mindfulness not easily accessible in our everyday lives.

Leanna Wolff learned to swim before she could walk and of all the countries and landscapes she has travelled and called home over the years, it has always been next to true blue waters. It wasn’t until she left every title and possession behind 5 years ago when she moved to Hawaii that for the first time in her life, she found home. Surrounded by water in the middle of the Pacific among the most beautifully rich culture with people that valued the outdoors as much as she did – she was home.

Always drawn to the arts, she studied and became affluent in numerous mediums starting at a very young age, including pastel, pen & ink, painting, scultpure, graphic design and photography. She decided to commit her career path to architecture and design, a way of using her creativity and skill to fulfill what she percieved as a more secure future than a ‘starving artist’. Graduating number one in her class at the Art Institute in San Diego in Interior Design, she began working full time with sustainable design at the forefront of her process. Never stopping her free creative expression in the arts, creating custom paintings and ceramic backsplashes for clients became a signature in her projects which varied from beautiful oceanfront homes to restaurants and airplane hangars. This only fueled her realization that creating art was to become an integral and inseparable part of her life.

After several years in the industry, Leanna began feeling detached from her work and the career path she had chosen. Foregoing the roots she had grown in California, she moved to the Virgin Islands where she worked on a 70‘ trimaran, sailing the islands and leading dives for most of 2012. Disconnecting with land and technology while reconnecting with the ocean helped revive her deepest intentions with her work and persue them once again – to inspire spaces through unfiltered creativity. Island hopping once again with the love of her life and artist Otto Wolff, they landed on Oahu with little to their name but clear intentions to build a life in this way.

Upon arrival, she presented her work to a gallery and within a few hours, they were sold. Now nearly 6 years later, her works reside with collectors in cities across the globe and a dream has become a reality for this artist. Leanna’s experience in architectural interior design has sustained her a niche working with clients on private commissions, understanding their spaces as a whole and giving visuals that is unique to her process. Settled in Hawaii with Otto and their twin girls, the family works together to create every piece, the 4 year old twins helping to collect glass, shells and plastics off the beach while Otto studies and documents the water through his photography and hand stretches every canvas. Bringing awareness to the current state of our oceans and how to rid it of the waste our lifestyles worldwide have contributed to its devastation is a passion that runs deep in this family. For every painting sold, Leanna donates $100 to Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii. Both an artist and a designer, Leanna consciously works with color, scale, balance & texture to create works of art that interact with us, recalling experiences that strengthen our connectedness to nature and to ourselves.