Graphic designer, video animator, illustrator, and artist Ingmar Järve also has done a fair share of illegal street art and legal walls at GUTFACE in the last few years – including participating in Estonia’s Rural Urban Art festival, which focuses on small towns there.
Last year he quit his job in advertising and went on his own away from Estonia’s capital of Tallinn on the Gulf of Finland to pursue a professional career solo in Tartu, a couple of hours southeast. Tartu is also where the Stencibility festival has run for a decade and the street art scene is more lively. He shows us this new mural he created for the local municipality of a small town in the north of Estonia called Kadrina.
“The artwork is inspired by an Estonian folklore character which I interpreted and illustrated,” he says, and you can tell he is proud of the clean lines and curving forms that refer to historical storytelling – as well as their similarity to current tattoo, skater and signage styles.
He calls it “Snake King of Kadrina”.