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. 

An Interview with the Artist  

Why do you make art? 

I make art to talk about things people don’t usually want to talk about. I make art because I communicate better visually and I think better three dimensionally.

 What kind of art do you make? 

Ceramics, sculpture, and oil painting.
 
How did you become an artist?

I started making art when I was 39. Before that, I was an engineer. I was a welfare mom and took a skill building class offered by the federal government on drafting. Later, after I met my husband who was in the military we moved to Charleston. I couldn't get a job drafting because I was a woman.

While in Charleston, I was inspired by some porcelain jewelry and thought, “Hey, I could do that!” I found a ceramic art teacher who basically adopted me after seeing my very first painting I did in his class.

So, at 39, I began my life as an artist. I soon found that the process of art making opened up deep wounds and caused me to deal with my personal trauma from my childhood. I was sexually abused by maternal grandfather as a child. This process was very intense, but it saved my life. 

What is your personal philosophy about art?

I believe creativity is an innate human characteristic and the process of being artistic is one of the most positive things we can do to give ourselves peace and to understand ourselves better.