“Art has been the avenue for healing for me, from the beginning.” states Linda Litteral, this week’s CCC artist. Linda took her first art class in clay when she was 33 and graduated with an MFA from San Diego State University when she was 49. “Art is a powerful medium for saying things that cannot be said verbally. It takes the trauma out of your body and lessens the power it has over you.”
When Linda moved to Charleston, SC with her husband in 1988, she was working in manufacturing as a tooling and product designer. She was told, ”We do not hire women here” time and again. So she began taking classes at Duke’s School of Clay and Fine Art and fell in love with the medium.
Passionate about women’s issues and specifically sexual abuse, Linda uses her art to make political commentary. She also teaches, using art as a healing modality at Donovan State Prison and at Las Colinas Detention Facility for women, where 80% of the population has been sexually abused at some time in their lives. “I find it inspiring to help others, and expose inequities in a world that seems to be warring against women.”
Currently Linda is working on a series of carvings around a spiral design. A repeated motif found in Linda’s work, the spiral, represents her path to recovery from childhood sexual abuse. Carving porcelain comes naturally and with flow, and it is where she works out her ideas for sculpture. The meditative process gives her mind space. She also throws and carves bowls, labeling them “possibility bowls” where your hopes and dreams can be held in a safe place. She likes the surprise’s in soda firings for glazes. For larger sculpture she uses coils and can work on a single piece for a couple weeks or more depending on complexity. Linda enjoys technical challenges and different media. Ultimately, the work is more about the idea than the material.
Linda is the Co-director of the Feminists Image Group(FIG) a professional women’s artist group that shows together. She has curated a show at City College in San Diego called “Don’t Shut Up” which is her mantra around sexual abuse. She also has had a residency at Centre Pompadour, A laboratory for Neo-Feminism in France and two shows in Sweden, Feminism Now, at Grafiska Sallskapet Gallery, and Betrayed at Krogen Amerika Gallery. She is currently showing Linda Litteral: A Solo Show, at Sparks Gallery in San Diego and Flourish, at Klamath Art Gallery in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
To see more of Linda’s work find her at www.lindalitteral.com or www.healingartprocess.com, on Facebook: Linda Literal Artist and on Instagram @lindalitteralartist
