Have you looked at the out of state schools on the WUE exchange?
Possibly the most affordable “artsy” college you could transfer to would be Southern Oregon U in Ashland. (It’s only about 15 miles beyond the CA border, but still pretty far from any of the major CA cities.) It’s a smaller, residential public university with around 5K undergrads, particularly strong in the arts. (Lots of theater - Ashland is the home of the OR Shakespeare Festival.) The campus has a private-LAC feel. Transfers can get the WUE rate, which puts the COA at under $27K/year - less than a UC. This would be both an admissions and a financial safety for you, and they accept applications on a rolling basis year-round (which is to say they’re on quarters, and take new transfers in any quarter). They have preprofessional advising for a variety of fields including medicine http://catalog.sou.edu/content.php?catoid=2&navoid=142 and an English department with a choice of concentrations http://catalog.sou.edu/content.php?catoid=2&navoid=131
There are many other options on the WUE exchange; you can search them here, and check the box to show only schools that give the WUE rate to transfers. If you want to be in a city, you could attend a WUE university in Albuquerque, Portland, Reno, Las Vegas, Denver… and all of these will be at 150% of their in-state tuition rate or less, which is to say, generally cheaper than going to UC in-state. http://wue.wiche.edu/search1.jsp
I’m not saying that you can’t necessarily get into private colleges that are more competitive than some of the WUE schools… but merit aid for transfers is hard to come by, even with perfect stats. If I’m hearing you correctly, it sounds as if getting established in a good location and a healthy environment, with a good education at a reasonable price (and perhaps sooner rather than later), may be a higher priority than chasing maximum prestige at this stage of your education. These will, at the very least, make excellent financial safeties for you as you explore other options.