Ethnic Vision traces the origins of Romanian folk art in village life, its transmission to America, and its growth in the United States today. In its analyses of the folk art pieces, it draws on cultural, artistic, and historical points of view, as well as considering the language and oral tradition associated with folk art. Using taped interviews with American craftsmen of Romanian descent as its source, this study considers artists who continue to create crafts in the tradition of specific Romanian villages. It also uncovers folk creations of Romanian American artists who develop a new folk art form that clearly reflects the influence of American culture. Despite the material changes in their work, all of these craftsmen continue to be inspired by the Orthodox religious motivation of their ancestors. Ethnic Vision will contribute to the study and understanding of all ethnic American folk art. It provides penetrating insight into the culture of the Romanian American people who have tenaciously clung to their traditions despite centuries of persecution, harassment, and coercive assimilation.

I.Introduction -- II. Village Life and Customs. Mystery and Village Life. The Dacian Background. Folk Art As a Sign. Art, Feast, and Custom: Meeting of Heaven and Earth -- III. Transmission. Romanian Ethnicity and Traditional Folk Art. A Longing for the Art of the Old Country. The American Melting Pot and Romanian Ethnic Art. Preservation of Romanian Folk Art in the United States. Why Romanian Americans Continue to Create Traditional Folk Art -- IV. Traditional Romanian Art in America. Icons of Bob Gerwing and Eugene Mihai. Egg Decorating of Mary Sulea and Sylvia Oana. Wooden Crosses of George Potcoava and Victor Angelescu. Embroidery of Sylvia Ilariu, Virginia Sandru, Reveca Fatu, and Mary Papp -- V. Romanian American Folk Art.