Debra Disman

Making Books, Making Community at the Brentwood Art Center!

June 16, 2019 By Debra Disman

Teaching community workshop in June on Flag Books and Found Text at the Brentwood Art Center was pure joy!

“Fun with Flag (pages)” was had by all.

Adults and children alike created marvelous flag book creations and had a blast in the process!

Participants learned to fold an accordion spine, add covers, and attach the flag pages on alternating sides of the spine to create a pattern that changed as the book was opened.

After the flag book was “built” (books and buildings have a lot in common…but that is a subject for another post…)

the real (well, that depends on your definition) fun began…filling, embellishing and developing the book!

Participants used images and text from magazines,

expressing their interests, thoughts, and ideas…

choosing what they wanted to express

with the materials at hand.

Some chose to draw by hand.

Some laid forth their content using repeated elements, like a graphic designer.

Others asked questions.

And some put it all together thematically.

All in all, a most remarkable experience.
Bravo!

FORMATION at UCLA: The Exhibition (5)

June 9, 2019 By Debra Disman

“FORMATION”: The Guild of Book Workers 2018-2019 Traveling Juried Exhibition closed May at UCLA!

University of California, Los Angeles
Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery
Los Angeles, CA
March 15–May 30, 2019

I am extremely honored to have two pieces in FORMATION, The Guild of Book Workers 2018-2019 traveling juried exhibition, with a theme evoking a wide array of interpretations. This post shares the design of the exhibition, as well as selections of the incredible work.

Shown is the display in the Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery/University of California, Los Angeles.
The exhibition continued in the wonderful UCLA Library Special Collections room downstairs.

“Simply defined by Merriam Webster as “an act of giving form or shape to something,” ‘formation‘ can insinuate process, history, creation, change, beginnings, an arrangement, botany and landscape, personal narratives and impersonal storytelling. As artists, designers and craftspeople with our own histories that form us, we also play a vital role in the formation of objects and experiences; pulp molded into paper, paper folded into books, books shelved into a library.

What is the final product, if not for the methods used to create it? What makes us into the artists we are? What pushes us to continue to create?” –FORMATION

It was wonderful to have FORMATION here in LA.

Now the show is off to:

The North Bennet Street School
Boston, MA
June 5 — July 27, 2019

The University of the Arts
Philadelphia, PA
August 1 — October 30, 2019

If you are in those areas and interested in the art of the book…please check it out!
I don’t think you will be disappointed!

FORMATION at UCLA: Hang Out (4)

June 2, 2019 By Debra Disman

“FORMATION”: The Guild of Book Workers 2018-2019 Traveling Juried Exhibition just closed at UCLA.

University of California, Los Angeles
Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery
Los Angeles, CA
March 15–May 30, 2019

What is the final product, if not for the methods used to create it? What makes us into the artists we are? What pushes us to continue to create?” –FORMATION

I am extremely honored to have two pieces in FORMATION, The Guild of Book Workers 2018-2019 traveling juried exhibition, with a theme evoking a wide array of interpretations. In this post, I share my work included in the show; “Hang Out”, and “Black Hang Out”.

“Hang Out” was initially displayed laying down. I asked for it to be standing, and the wonderful staff followed suit.

Interior detail

Both books standing

I did my best to capture the feel of these pieces when they showed in the Library Lobby Gallery alongside a myriad of varied, extraordinary, exemplary, breathtaking works created by other artists and makers in whose company I am moved and proud to be.

SPECIAL collections SPECIAL place

May 26, 2019 By Debra Disman

Special Collections Charles E. White Research Library UCLA

Need I say More?

Marbling Unfurled: Making Marbled Scrolls at the Granada Hills Library

May 24, 2019 By Debra Disman

It has been exciting to lead programs at the Granada Hills Branch Library of the LAPL, as part of my Artist Residency there: “We Write the Book“, supported by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

In honor of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, I led a workshop for all on how to marble paper, create scrolls and put these two forms together into one of the oldest book structures extant.

Scrollwork made by an adult artist at a UCLA-Fowler Museum program and generously gifted to me, and which I often use as a sample/model to inspire students.

We begin by floating specially formulated inks on the surface of a tub of water. The ink colors can be gently moved around to create designs. Papers are then carefully lowered onto the surface of the “inked” water, and pick up the designs, like a monoprint!

The marbled papers are lifted out of the tub, placed on and under and blotted with paper towels, which absorb excess water and help with the drying process.

The results can be delicate pastel,

or stronger colors and patterns, depending on the colors and handling of the inks.

While their marbled papers were drying, participants chose bright tagboard papers for their scrolls and added wooden dowels at the vertical top and bottom of the pieces. They then added their marbled papers and a myriad of other materials!

We used both glue sticks and tacky glue, depending on the weight of the materials added.

The results were resplendent, with the softer strength marbled papers contrasting with gold ribbon and more.

Intergenerational attendance enriched the experience, as participants of all ages engaged their creativity and learned new skills in the process.

Whole families joined us, even with very young attendees! Hopefully, these young parents of two got a break.

Attendees young and old loved adding two and three-dimensional stickers,

washi tape, ribbon and string,

putting them all together in imaginative and innovative ways to create singular scrollworks.

This says it all. The Library belongs to Everyone!

Tunnel Vision

May 18, 2019 By Debra Disman

It was fantastic to teach a workshop on Tunnel Books for families, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The Tunnel Book is comprised of two accordion spines, or “sides”, connected by a “backdrop” and “cross pieces” or frames attached to the accordion folds working from the back fold and moving forward in space.
The mise-en-scène is then created through the addition of images/shapes/materials attached to the crosspieces and creating actual depth of space between them.

Students of all ages employed tremendous imagination and creativity as they “tunneled through” the process of making, adding pop-ups, folds, “doors” and even a “floor” to their works.

The work of our hands…