Born in Geneva, Switzerland of Romanian political refugees, Sanda Manuila owns a family history that tells of expatriation and isolation. As a young adult she moved to California and over the years has learned to become a citizen of the world, a status she also gained by studying art in France, Italy and in the United States. With her oil and pastel paintings Manuila creates stylized representational images, which take an allegorical quality. Her stories depict a state of mind in which the boundaries between dream and reality have become very fluid. Her purpose is to make art that shows the challenging path of life in these disturbing times, and that warns about the danger of the denial of climate change. By charging her work with emotional energy, Manuila engages the viewers to wonder about what they see and how they feel.