Stela Mandel

Originally from New York, I was lucky to begin my formal art education at the High School of Art and Design, majoring in advertising and illustration. There, I studied with Max Ginsburg, a social realist painter, who taught technique through a lens of activism, something that has stayed with me and is reflected in much of my work. 

After studying art in college – and after a few career twists and turns as a schoolteacher in the Bronx and an album cover designer in Nashville – I enrolled in graduate school at the University of California, San Francisco, and got a Masters degree in Medical Illustration. It was a 

privilege to take anatomy, physiology and surgery classes at the medical school as well as classes in medical and scientific illustration. 

For many years after that, I principally worked as a medical illustrator, while making art, as well. During this time, I was fortunate to study painting with Chester Arnold at the College of Marin. 

More recently, the balance has shifted, and, while I am still illustrating, I am painting more, with a studio at the Industrial Center Building in beautiful Sausalito,

Greenbrae