Yevgeniya Kilupe (born in 1938), the creator of amazing authentic papier mache masks has never been a professional artist. Although she was very keen on drawing during her childhood, she had to earn living for her family all her adult life doing various jobs in the factories of Rezekne (a town in Eastern Latvia). Only after retirement Yevgeniya decided to take up papier mache - just to make some extra money besides her pension.

The amateur talent was spotted by a representative of the art gallery visiting one of the marketplaces of Latgale where Yevgeniya was selling her masks. She was immediately invited to bring her works to Riga. The exhibition in December of 2010 was triumphant.

Yevgeniya has carefully studied nature to make each image fascinatingly vivid. An occasional witch face or another fairytale character appear among the masks of animals.

Yevgeniya's molding and painting skills are so convincing that it is even hard to tell they are handcrafted. Only in some touching details she gives us a clue of the uniqueness of her works - each of them thoroughly handmade with heart and soul, filled with her love for Nature, Life and God.