I have had to change and expand the ubiquitous bio an endless amount of times as I continue to grow on a personal and profesional level. Despite numerous BIOs, I continue to remain partial to the following one (WARNING: it starts very abruptly and wonders off searching for a sense of purposefulness before diving into the usual humble bragging info typically included into the Who Am I passage):

"As a reaction, I have started to explore photographing carefully staged artistic compositions that combine my love of innocent color and ethereal structure with a stronger sense of social responsibility through direct intervention. To this purpose I am also involved in raising awareness about the fact that art is not elitist, it is not an indulgence. I fully understand than in these desperate times, there are certainly more pressing imperatives than making the world more beautiful to look at but to decline to make it more beautiful when it is in your power to do so is a grotesque misunderstanding of reacting under hardship. After all, the environments we surround ourselves with have the power to shape our thoughts and our emotions. As a matter of fact, when we sacrifice the possibility of art/decoration we forfeit a slew of extraordinary aesthetic tools and forgo the possibility of incredible visual experiences."

Who Am I: Odeta Xheka is an artist, writer, poet and debuting picture book creator interested in the power of art to educate. She holds her BA in History of Art from the American College of Greece, Athens, Greece and MA in Higher Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York .

Although for the past few years she has focused on raising her family, she continues to produce work that aims to subvert the familiar contradiction between romantic introspection and conceptual rationalism both through her canvases and photographic collage as well as debuting picture book and writing on creative motherhood. Her creative nonfiction can be found at Mutha Magazine, Literary Mama and Her View From Home. Her book Here Comes Ingo is IndieReader Approved and 2019 Book of the Year by Creative Child Magazine. You can learn more about her work at Odeta Xheka Visuals.