Quick insight on LAHC artist Ron Linden
Andrew Villanueva
Posted in: News on 9/24/09 at 9:35 PM PST
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Linden grew up in Chicago and made his way to California in 1972. He spent the 1970's in Pasadena back when Old Town was a "slum but artists haven," yet was also a "very powerful art colony." Linden said.
He then decided to move to downtown Los Angeles where he lived for 11 years. During this time he was teaching at UC Irvine and also helped students with their studio art in San Pedro. He took such a liking to the city that he decided to open an art studio there.
During his high school career, he took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, which solidified his passion in art. After attending AIC, Linden attended the University of Illinois where he received his BFA and MFA. While attending graduate school, his passion for teaching grew as he was mentored and took on the role of graduate teaching assistant. "You recognize after you get out of the mess, that there some people, usually, very few key people that push you in a direction that you're going to stay with." Linden explains.
Before becoming an instructor he made a living doing different professions such as: carpentry, painting, painting scenery in Hollywood, and even worked as a union scenic artist for Disney for about six or seven years.
"This was before all special effects turned digital and you had to rig everything so no one would get hurt." Linden said.
Eventually, he made his way to teaching and has taught at a number of schools such as: Cal State Northridge, The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, San Francisco Art Institute, and UC Irvine. He was eventually offered a job here at Harbor College and has been here ever since.
"My first students ranged from 17 to 75 years old, and from a whole variety of backgrounds. So it's a whole different experience for me and I kind of got won over by it." Linden said.
He believes that art is important, because everything else is just subject to revision, but art isn't.
"Nobody has ever dared to re-write a play by Shakespeare, nobody has ever dared to rescore a tune by Miles Davis, and it's necessary if people want to have any kind of spiritual health." Linden said. He feels that art in our culture, even though it can get messy at times, its the most worth while aspect of our lives.
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