Alissa Hirshfeld, Visual Artist

Alissa Hirshfeld, Visual Artist I have been painting since I was a child, with a variety of themes and styles.

Praying for peace. Oil paint, paper, mixed media. 1986 meets 2026 🙏🙏🙏
04/26/2026

Praying for peace.
Oil paint, paper, mixed media.
1986 meets 2026
🙏🙏🙏

“The World Needs Healing”—my entry to the “Resist and Persist: Social (in)Justice” show at SebArts.
04/11/2026

“The World Needs Healing”—my entry to the “Resist and Persist: Social (in)Justice” show at SebArts.

Our quilt square for the We the People quilt project. One down, one more in process.
04/05/2026

Our quilt square for the We the People quilt project. One down, one more in process.

Two watercolors up at the Santa Rosa Art Center Spring exhibit, South of A Street, through May!
04/05/2026

Two watercolors up at the Santa Rosa Art Center Spring exhibit, South of A Street, through May!

Lately I’ve been having fun playing with watercolors.
01/21/2026

Lately I’ve been having fun playing with watercolors.

Decorative flower pots. They make great holiday gifts! I’m available for commissions!
12/06/2025

Decorative flower pots. They make great holiday gifts! I’m available for commissions!

My piece in the Santa Rosa Art Center member show. Happy to be a new member there! I am working on making greeting card...
12/06/2025

My piece in the Santa Rosa Art Center member show. Happy to be a new member there!
I am working on making greeting cards out of my psychological-twisted parody paintings. Watch for those in the new year!

My piece is in the curent show at Graton Gallery, top left. Show is up thru Sept 7. Please stop into this lovely gallery...
08/24/2025

My piece is in the curent show at Graton Gallery, top left. Show is up thru Sept 7. Please stop into this lovely gallery when you’re in the area! Support local artists.

When I first decided to be part of Open Studios, it was to get the art stored in my garage, at Danny’s, and in my studio...
06/11/2025

When I first decided to be part of Open Studios, it was to get the art stored in my garage, at Danny’s, and in my studio out to be viewed and witnessed by the public. As other artists know, making art can feel very solitary.
But—I did not anticipate what a wonderful community-building activity Art at the Source could be.
I had such a wonderful time last weekend meeting and chatting with neighbors, other local artists (even within my complex, who I didn’t know and now want to collaborate with ), acquaintances, previously unknown folks from the wider area, as well as longtime friends.
At this time in our country, engaging with community in a non-divisive, connecting way—around a not- charged and positive subject— feels especially important!
So please join me again this coming weekend (in between potential protest and/or Fathers Day plans). I’d love to see you!
(Photos of me in earlier years viewing/making art)

Hanging out with my friend Jackson Po***ck (in earlier days)!
06/08/2025

Hanging out with my friend Jackson Po***ck (in earlier days)!

06/07/2025

I have always loved drawing and painting. When I was a little girl, art was often my escape from difficult feelings that I didn’t know how to deal with—sadness over being teased, seeing my mother cry, feeling excluded by my older sister and her friends or sometimes by my own friends. I could escape into a world of bright colors and shapes, and that would make me happy.
I would go with my parents to art museums (I was fortunate to grow up in Washington DC, near wonderful museums and galleries, and to get to visit NY often, where family lived, to go to MOMA and the Met) and lose myself staring into Monet’s water lilies or Jackson Po***ck’s drips.
I always took art classes as a child, once with a well known local artist/family friend. When it came time to go to college, I wanted to study art. Family and teachers told me I was “too smart to be an artist.” Looking back that seems like such an odd assessment—“You’re too smart to do something you love.” So, I compromised. I went to Harvard, but majored in art history and studio art. People used to look at me askance when I told them I studied art at Harvard. Probably the least competitive major there! Although I hated when we had to critique each others’ work in classes. Art for me was always about expression and healing.
At the end of college, I did an internship with Sally Denman, where I learned about the field of art therapy.
And I wrote my senior thesis on the works Jackson Po***ck produced as part of his Jungian analysis.
My budding interest in psychology began to dovetail with my love for art. After college, I studied the connection between creativity, mood disorders, and spirituality in the New York School artists (Rothko, Po***ck, etc) with a professor at Harvard Med School.
Over time, I would integrate the arts into my psychotherapy and spiritual direction practices, to encourage others to use art to heal their own wounds.
But I have always continued to crave making my own art. And I have, over the years, between my career and child raising.
Danny Flores build me an art studio in our old house. And in the last few years, has encouraged me to take up art again in earnest. To reclaim this identity.
So, it’s thrilling to be participating in Open Studios for the first time, especially as I enter a new decade (my 60’s) and seek to say yes to new opportunities.
I feel like one of those creators in the ads in movie theaters: “I’m Alissa Hirshfeld, and I make art!

06/06/2025

Look forward to seeing some of you this weekend at my Open Studio.
Sat and Sun 10-5.
Place is spanking clean and ready for guests!!! đź’—đź’—đź’—
Art heals!

Address

Santa Rosa, CA

Opening Hours

Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Sunday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+14153856756

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Alissa Hirshfeld, Visual Artist posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to Alissa Hirshfeld, Visual Artist:

Shortcuts

Share

Category