3421 Tripp Court, San Diego, California 92121, United States
Founder
Elissa Jill Lieberman, M.F.A.
I am a San Diego Artist. Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1975, my love of drawing began very young, blossoming into a passion for painting, drawing, and writing. I graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1997 with a Bachelor of Fine Art Degree. In 2002, I earned a Master of Fine Art in painting from the renowned Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art. As a teacher’s assistant, I was coached in the ways of professorship and was soon teaching foundation art classes at the Delaware College of Art and Design (a feeder school for Pratt in New York and Corcoran in D.C.). I painted under the mentorship of abstract expressionist, “Grace Hartigan”, contemporary of Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler, and Willhem DeKooning. The wisdom passed down from her and noted critics alike stabilized my footing as a painter.
I relocated to San Diego in 2002. As an adjunct professor, I was able to fully blossom into the teacher and mentor I was to become. I was on faculties at San Diego State University, Southwestern College, University of San Diego, and Mesa College as well as San Diego Art Department and the La Jolla Athenaeum School of Art and Music. I kept a studio in Little Italy and exhibited large narrative paintings in New York.
In 2007, I left academia to join the San Diego Museum of Art s as the manager of the Museum Art School where I created classes, worked with instructors, curators, docents, art historians, not to mention members of other cultural institutions at Balboa Park.
I eventually become restless with San Diego, longing for the seasons and lush green landscapes. I moved to Portland, Oregon in 2009. It was an incredible shock to the system. The art scene, the culture, and the clouds and rain were so different.
I returned to San Diego in 2012 and taught at a private studio. Soon I felt the need to once again lead an art program and work with students on skills, portfolio development, and facilitate a creative community where artists, students, and other art professionals could relate, learn, and grow
I created the San Diego Life Drawing meetup group and had a crowd in my Sorrento Valley studio. It was so well attended, in fact, I knew it was time to jump and commit to developing the teaching studio we now call the San Diego Art Loft.
No art school or Atelier is quite the San Diego the San Diego Art Loft. It was nominated by San Diego Citybeat Magazine as the Best Art school in San Diego in 2017. What was remarkable was that it was not a team project. The Art Loft is a solo project. I have found that teaching itself is an art. My style of teaching has allowed me to engage with art students from middle school to baby boomers and beyond.
The classes for most of the years were only taught by me, however, over time, art professionals appear to me to be gifted in the area of teaching art and mentorship which goes as deep into one’s core as making art. And so, I invite artists to propose workshops as visiting instructors. The Art Loft is a breathing and living entity that welcomes other artists looking for a platform to commune in good spirits. A strong art community is possible, whether it’s teaching classes, workshops, lectures, events, life drawing sessions, gallery exhibitions, residencies, it’s all possible when we unify. The Art Loft is fluid and the community voice, I am eager to hear.
