Andreia Gliga, a Romanian-born artist residing in the DMV area for the past 27 years, has a deep connection to her roots and heritage. Born in Suceava, she spent childhood vacations in the culturally rich area of Bucovina, surrounded by the famous painted monasteries built in the 1400s. She has been working for more than 15 years as an art teacher while at the same time teaching Romanian to American diplomats, as a Romanian Target Language Expert (with DLS).
Andreia has showcased her artwork solo and in group exhibits in Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, New York, and Bucharest.
Currently working on future painting exhibits, Andreia is passionate about preserving the rich Romanian cultural values.
“My own way of stopping time is painting. In this case, I felt blessed painting clay spoons inspired by Romania's archaic motifs and symbols. The endless columns, the patterns present on our national port, the floral embellishments present on pots, doors, walls, fences, and almost everywhere else are our national DNA. They symbolize persistence and beauty stretched into eternity. I visualized a place deeply rooted in tradition, a mysteriously beautiful place reminding us, in a melancholic way, about our first home. A place that is carved deeply within our hearts, wherever life takes us. A place where time seems to have stopped and only the essence of things is carried on.
Why spoons? Because they seem to hold whatever the viewer is willing to put into them.
Working with clay has always fascinated me because it's a very pure way of giving a new life to something shapeless, almost waiting to be born. I wanted my spoons to look rustic and imperfect. I painted them being inspired by lively colors and designs, as an homage to some of Romania's most popular, millennial artistic motifs: the curved shapes as a symbol of fertility and energy, the tree of life connecting earth and heaven, and the spiral as a never-ending timeline.”