EMANUELA HARRIS-SINTAMARIAN

I was born and lived, until the age of twenty-three, in Romania, where I also completed my early years of studies, first at Nicolae Tonitza, a selective art high-school, followed by Nicolae Grigorescu University of Fine Arts Bucharest. Both of these institutions, especially the former, have recently begun to regain their importance in the European educational system. This appreciation, once lost because of the political situation, comes as a result of the mélange between the professors-artists, who gained international recognition, and its rigorous academic training. This training was based not only upon extensive and laborious art study classes, but also on the mandatory prerequisites of intensive studies in philosophy, art-history, and foreign languages. Fortunately, I was one of the beneficiaries of this traditional academic system, which provided critical fundamentals for my training as an artist.

During this period Romania was a country considered behind “the iron curtain”. In the mid-seventies, while under a dictatorship, Romania turned inwards and closed both cultural and political channels with the Western world. As an immediate result of this forced cloistering, the cultural and artistic environment changed, and art was considered a “subversive capitalist element”. After the fall of the dictatorship and communism in 1989 there were some attempts to reconnect with Western society, but this could not change the mentality built over the last half of the century. Furthermore, the country did not know how to deal with its freedom gained after 1989, and over time, managed to close the political relationships with the West resulting in a dismissive attitude by the Western world towards Romanian citizens. Nevertheless, by winning two scholarships to study in Europe, I had the opportunity to connect with the Western art world.

In 1998 the University of Fine Arts from Bucharest in collaboration with The Romanian Institute from Venice, financed my first study abroad experience in Italy. In Venice I had an exhibition under the tutelage of the Romanian Institute in Venice. I also worked on my art and participated in intensive art history classes. During a trip to Rome I had a meeting with the former Romanian ambassador to the Holy See and the director of the Romanian Institute of Rome, with whom I started a discussion regarding a much more ambitious art project. The project was to involve the University of Fine Arts in Bucharest, The Romanian Institute in Rome, as well as The Romanian Embassy to the Holy See. Although the preliminary project was accepted, due to objective causes (the unexpected death of the institute director), it was never finalized.

In 2000, having won a contest organized by the Romanian-French Association “Association Culturelle Saint Remy de Provence”, I spent several weeks in France to continue my studies. The generous scholarship and invitation from this association gave me the opportunity to meet curators and French artists as well as the opportunity to exhibit my work. Although at the beginning the French public regarded the exhibition as simply “exotic eastern European art”, over time we were able to create a dialogue, and the public started to act and react to the art itself. As a logical and progressive conclusion of this dialogue, I returned to Romania and had another show, which generated questions from the Romanian public’s point of view about art in the West.

In 1999 I came for the first time to the United States in a student exchange program. I volunteered to assist and participate in opening a basic art program for the children of Sioux Falls Reservation. The volunteer work was familiar to me, since I had worked with HIV Positive children in a Romanian orphanage. However, in the States I had the chance to discover and feel the sense of “the other” face of the American society. This experience helped me over time to relate better to some of problems of both my students and colleagues.

In the summer of 2000 I returned to the United States on a scholarship offered by the University of Delaware for an MFA in Printmaking (Masters in Fine Arts). While in Delaware I made contacts with different members of the art community, such as Mrs. Foreman, director of The Newark Arts Alliance in Newark, Mrs. Dede Yong, the former curator of DCCA (Delaware Center of Contemporary Art), collaborators of the Print Center in Philadelphia, and I had shows in area galleries, such as Blue Streak Gallery in Wilmington, Rosenfeld Gallery in Philadelphia, and Limner Gallery in New York.

After completing my MFA at the University of Delaware, I realized that I had more questions than answers about art. So, I applied and I was accepted for a second MFA in painting at San Jose State University, CA, where I am currently finishing my degree (May, 2005). A new space with new investigations, and therefore, new experiences, combined with the opportunity to teach led me to accept the offer and move to the West coast.

While I was lecturing or teaching at both the University of Delaware and San Jose State University, I realized that the mélange between my personal and professional experiences generated by the exposure to different social, political, economical and cultural backgrounds has created the grounds for a flexible approach of a dialogue. Thus my teaching philosophy hinges upon the idea of dialogue and its active application is reflected by the desire to work with my students to find the most suitable solutions according to their own understanding and set of beliefs.