Hirsch earned a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1967, and an MFA in pictorial arts from UCLA in 1970. After graduating she taught at Santa Monica College and the University of Judaism,, then in 1973 joined the art department at California State University Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles, and obtained tenure in 1978. She was a founding member of the Los Angeles Council of Women Artists, the "mother" organization of many subsequent feminist art organizations. She also named and facilitated the Joan of Art Seminars,, teaching artists the business aspects of their professional careers. Since then,, this has become common practice and a regular component of art school curricula. In 1974 Hirsch brought the life and work of Canadian artistEmily Carr to the attention of the American academic community at the College Art Association, Washington, DC. Hirsch curated the exhibition, Metamagic, in 1978 at the California State University Dominguez Hills University Art Gallery in Los Angeles. This exhibit was the first held nationally in a major exhibition space to be focused on the spiritual in art and attracted worldwide attention. Hirsch spent the fall semester of 1979 as visiting artist at Saint Martin's School of Art, London, England. As requests for exhibitions of her work and talks about her philosophy multiplied, she originated a slide presentation of her paintings that reflected both aspects of her work. This unusual presentation was introduced at the Menninger Foundation’s annual conference in Council Grove, Kansas. Hirsch has continued to serve as presenter for numerous Council Grove conferences and has convened two conferences. In 1983 Hirsch first presented her theory on the origin of alphabet, Cosmography: The Writing of the Universe, at the Council Grove Conference. In 1985 Hirsch received a senior artist grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, which – with a sabbatical from California State University – enabled her to travel in Asia. In December 1986 she met Ngawangdanhup Narkyid, the official biographer of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, initiating a friendship that would prove to be life-changing for the artist. In 2009 she coordinated Stepping into the Light, an exhibition of work by California State University Dominguez Hills students in aid of sexually assaulted women. Hirsch has also pursued an interest in architecture, and over a period of 35 years restored a 1900s duplex in Venice, California. Hirsch has shown work at Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, CA, and 2011 Vincent Gallery, Moscow, Russia, 2009 Symbol Galeria, Budapest, 2007 Piano Nobile Gallery, Kraków, 2006 Soviart Gallery, Kiev, 2006 Artoteka Gallery, Bratislava and 2005 Limes Galeria, Komarno. Her archives are housed in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
