​Linda Litteral is a multi-faceted artist working alternately with ceramics, bronze cast and clay sculpture, oil and acrylic paint on canvas, pen and pencil on paper, wood, and three-dimensional mixed media sculpture.  Linda earned her MFA from San Diego State University (SDSU). Her thesis was an exploration of art as a way to expose and heal childhood abuse. Past teaching experience includes SDSU, Mesa, Miramar, Grossmont, and Southwestern Colleges. She currently teaches art healing classes to inmates at Las Colinas Detention Center and Donovan State Prison. Recently, she facilitated a similar class at New York City’s prestigious Bluestocking’s Bookstore. She is a member of Allied Craftsman and is co-dierctor of the Feminist Image Group. Her work has been seen extensively in Greater San Diego and is included in the collections of Museu Brasileira De Escultura, (The Brazil Museum of Culture) in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in Jingdzhen, China. Litteral curated the Feminist Image Group (FIG) show, Don’t Shut Up!  at City College. She travelled to New York City to represent the artists and their movement at Ceres Gallery.  She has shown her work at Grafiska Sallskapet and Krogen Amerika in Sweden. Litteral was also chosen for and attended a coveted two-month residency at Centre Pompadour in France for women artists creating social change through their art in 2018.  As an artist she is passionate about making the world a safer place for women and children.  She uses her art to educate and heal viewers. Her classes help people of all ages open to healing themselves and their communities. 

The religious tradition I grew up in told stories of saints and ascetics who went out in the desert to look for god. By means of narrative painting, I am making up my own religion, and the desert wanderer in my story is a particular version of Mary Magdalene. Recently she has absconded and I’m going to Desert Dairy to look for her.

In my long experience being an artist, I have made photos, paintings, parades, adobe monuments, and circuses, just to give a few examples. I have seven sisters, a couple of kids, some grandkids, a husband, friends, colleagues, and, well you get it, my life is crowded and full of distractions.

The last time I visited Desert Dairy, I was with a group of women, and we had some amazing experiences, Yet I knew I needed to come back, solo. To sustain my work, I need solitude, and permission. I know I can find that here, in this beautiful place and nurturing space.

​-Cindy Zimmerman

Lori Lipsman is an artist and designer in San Diego CA. She earned her Bachelor’s and Masters degrees fine art at the California College of the Arts, Oakland CA and then studied design at Mesa College in San Diego.

Embedded within her practice are experiment, play, experiences and learning. Her process includes a studio practice, performance, public art and collaborations. this manifested as temporary installation indoors and out, gallery exhibits, her free art project and and curatorial projects for art spaces and community.

www.lorilipsman.com

photo by Erik Graham