Sanda Steele

Art Mediums

• Oil

Biography

Born in Romania of Greek parents I have a great love of art, history, languages, cuisine, and the music of various peoples. Throughout my school years my artwork was always being exhibited within the art room and the school. As a young adult, I attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and ultimately earned my BA in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago. I have earned my Lithography Printmaker Certification from Tamarind Institute of Lithography in Albuquerque, New Mexico. During my young adult years I worked within the artist community in the Chicago area organizing poetry readings and visual art venues at local night clubs and coffee houses. As a newlywed (35 years ago) I moved to Wisconsin to raise a family. Shortly thereafter my husband and I opened Sanda’s Mediterranean Restaurant which I was awarded 4 1 ⁄ 2 stars for my cuisine by Food Critic Norm Starks of the Janesville Gazette.

In more recent years I have taught in private and public schools: Art, Beginning Spanish, Special Education, and as a Teacher of the Visually Impaired and Blind teaching children to read and write in braille in both English and Spanish. I am at a point in my life where I want to focus on my passion for visual art practices’ for myself. I have a strong connection to my Greek/Romanian heritage which, I feel, comes through in my expression of color, shape, and pattern. The linier expression of figures and objects of Greek artifacts and painted on architecture, and the colorful mosaique patterns of traditional rural Romanian art seem to converge in my artwork.