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Business & Tech

On the Job: Framing Her Career Around Art

With her "Art With Larisse" teaching studio, Larisse Robinson is painting a new path for many students.

Since she was a little girl, Larisse Robinson has loved expressing herself through art.

She drew, she painted and she explored concepts that were often far beyond her years.

In kindergarten, for instance, her teacher pulled Larisse’s mother aside one day to show her what her daughter had done in class.

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Her mom’s reaction: “So?”

It wasn’t until the teacher pulled out the pictures the other kids had done that she understood. Larisse was far above her peers.

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As Robinson relates the story, she smiles, saying the teacher that day told her mother: “Obviously, she likes to explore the creative side a little bit more.”

It’s obvious, too, that she’s still doing it.

As Robinson speaks, she’s sitting in a room filled with young students at her studio off Cuyamaca Street in Santee. Each boy or girl is sitting with an easel and supplies, drawing or painting as part of that day’s lesson. Each is immersed in the process, focused on the image coming to life on paper.

Robinson, 32, has been teaching and sharing her love of art since she was 19 in the Los Angeles area. Art was her passion as a child and remains so today. She moved to San Diego County in 2001 and opened up her own art school, which expanded to her Santee location in February of 2009.

She has about 85 students in Santee, and close to 140 students at her other studio in La Mesa. Even in a down economy, her business has expanded. As schools are forced to cut art from their curriculums, parents are looking for other creative outlets for their children.

Robinson and her husband, Charles, are now considering opening up another studio in San Diego.

“In these times, when parents could be spending money on food, they’re spending it on art classes,” she says. “They want . That’s quite obvious.”

An early start

To teach art was an easy choice for Robinson.

When she was 19, a friend recommended she follow what she was doing, teaching drawing and painting for a company called Mission: Renaissance. The company has almost 20 studios across the L.A./Orange County region, and Robinson applied, took the training and began.

Immediately she knew she’d found her career.

“I do actually remember my very first class that I taught,” she says. “This little boy was working on a panda. He was raising his hand, and I was very hesitant to go over and help, because who am I? What do I know?

“But he looked at me and he had absolutely no judgment on his face as to who I was or how much I knew or if I would help him or if he had to call somebody else. It was just, ‘Help me.’ So I gave him some advice, and he did it. And the feeling that just came flooding into me was amazing.

“This concept that people wanted my help and I could give it to them and they were satisfied with what it was.”

The experience proved a launching pad. After several years working for the company, she decided to move south, and offered to open up a Mission: Renaissance studio in this area. When the company wasn’t interested, Robinson dived in herself, opening up a small studio first in Rancho San Diego. Eventually, she moved it to La Mesa.

What she learned at Mission: Renaissance she has brought to her own studios.

She uses a similar system, based on a fine arts curriculum focused on Renaissance methods and techniques. There are no pens, markers or acrylics. Students use pastels, watercolors and oils, with brushes, pencils and charcoal.

Early on, they are taught to see shapes in the things they sketch and paint, simplifying their approach and helping them learn proportion. They use photos, drawings, objects and, eventually, the works of the masters to reproduce in their own way, learning depth, color and shading.

A key component of the system, too, are the levels of accomplishment set for students. Pupils begin in pastels, advance to watercolors and conclude working in oils, with various levels designated in each medium.

“That way they always have a goal,” she says. “It keeps them going.”

Her students generally range in age from about 5 to 15, although she does have a few adults, too.

Students meet and work together but, because of their different levels, will often be doing different things while sitting side by side.

Changing roles

As her students advance through levels, so has Robinson.

Now that her business has grown, she no longer has the day-to-day teaching responsibilities. She employs five teachers – all trained in her methods – who oversee the classes and the hands-on work. Robinson still visits the classrooms and observes, but her role has now shifted into a role focused more on the business plan, general curriculum and oversight and mentoring of the teachers themselves.

The change in role and schedule has coincided too, with her personal life, allowing her to spend more time at home with her 1-year-old, Audrey. Meanwhile, Charles, who has a degree in financial planning from , has taken a more active role in the business.

Robinson says, “You have to pinch yourself” to see how Art With Larisse has evolved.

Sometimes she sits in the back of a class, watching parents watch their students, and can’t help but feel satisfaction.

“This is one huge, good thing,” she says.

Robinson, who lives in Lakeside, also says their choice of Santee for a second studio has been a boon. They had watched the city for a while with interest, noting its growth, development and the completion of , and figured it would be a perfect location.

“This ,” she says.

‘Everyone has something’

To Robinson, art is not an elective, but an essential.

She grew up in a family of five children, and each is artistic in some fashion. She believes that’s true of almost everyone.

A person’s art may not involve a canvas. It may be in carving wood, fashioning words, or simply having the gift of gab.

“Everyone has something,” she says. “It’s what they desire and crave.”

For Robinson, it’s always been about creating images. On the walls of her Santee studio, in fact, is some of her work.

She doesn’t have quite as much time anymore to do her own art, but believes her abilities have improved simply through teaching others. After teaching a class, “I feel like I’ve done 20 pictures myself,” she says.

Plus, she’s provided the means for others to explore that “creative side” she was already tapping into in kindergarten.

“Some people are just happy to walk through that front door and know that they’re in art class,” she says.

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