Originally from Albania, I graduated from the Art Academy in Tirana, where I studied various mediums of art, ranging from traditional and classical styles to fiber arts. I went on to receive an MFA and completed advanced post-graduate studies in Art Criticism. My interests in art extend beyond the obvious and reach into abstract realms, including cultural criticism, history, and philosophy. Being from South Eastern Europe, i.e. the crossroads of a multitude of ethnicities, cultures and languages, my artwork tends to explore where east meets west, and includes themes that extend beyond geographic borders, cultures, races, ethnicities, and genders. Many of these ideas I have tried to translate into hand-woven tapestries. The tradition of tapestry weaving is an age-old Albanian tradition. In these fiber art creations I endeavor to incorporate the past into my artwork not only through the tradition of weaving itself, but also by integrating motifs and images that have been passed down from one generation to the next since ancient times throughout the region. By linking abstract images of the present with the ancient tradition of weaving, I try to capture elements of the past from the vantage point of the present, thereby illuminating various aspects of the future. The viewer is thus able to envision the future within the present and the past. By holding onto elements of the past, my artwork leads one to contemplate what sort of future the present will lead us to. My Intertwined Polarities series endeavors to create a visualization of an inner spiritual code. The tactile elements of the weaving are to evoke and express complementary intuitive, sensory, mental, and cultural insights - via recurring visual metaphors. I grew up in a part of the world that has been and continues to be an arena of clashes – the interweaving of threads from different cultures and civilizations, including a constant stream of occidental and oriental crisscrossing. I am intrigued by observing how humanity has been influenced by these cultures and civilizations - old and new. In the selected weavings I try to capture various spiritual transformations and psychological restructurings – the variable, the persistent, and the transient – of the human condition at the crossroads. This series constitutes a phase in my exploration of this co-existence of clashing forces. My constant search of self-expression involves mapping images to a woven template, involving an age-old path including horizontal and vertical lines, a grid, hand-tied knots, dots, and the notion of a pixel. Hence, a natural outgrowth of this series that is in development entails a live artistic performance where these elements interact.