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 6 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 first love - 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 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 architecture and design has sustained her a niche working with clients on large commissions that include the Royal Hawaiian Center, Cutter Ford, and the new Lau Hala shops in Kailua. ALA launched in 2017 and has allowed Leanna to combine her skills in interior design and painting to create a home and lifestyle line of collectable pieces people can enjoy every day.
Settled in Hawaii with Otto and their twin girls, the family works together to create every piece, the 6 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 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.