Debra Disman

Artist

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Debra Disman

in the BLACK

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Black and White? (I)

Working in whites and tones of white and white on white…I wanted to see what all BLACK would render.

Here we go…

Black Hang Out, 2017
Book board, canvas, hemp cord, watercolor paper, acrylic paint

Maximum Security, 2018
Book board, canvas, hemp cord, watercolor paper, ink, acrylic paint, wood

In the Thicket of It, 2018
Book board, canvas, hemp cord, watercolor paper, acrylic paint, wood

Night time. Mystery. Enticing. Forbidding. Absolute. Lost. Found. Again.

Continuing.

In “FORMATION”

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In “FORMATION”

I am honored to be a part of  Formation, the Guild of Book Workers triennial members’ exhibition, which has just begun a  two year national tour! The GBW says it best:

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. What makes us into the artists we are? How does our creative process influence the final product? What pushes us to continue to create? People, events, memories all combine to influence the art we make about the world around us, even if our work isn’t explicitly autobiographical.  The Guild of Book Workers’ 2018-2019 exhibition encouraged members to consider how the act of formation spoke to their artistic process.

The Formation Exhibition features 51 works from 46 members that will travel across the U.S. from June 2018 through October 2019. The show opens at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It will be held at MCBA until the Guild of Book Workers’ annual Standards of Excellence Seminar in October 2018. Formation will tour the country, stopping at the Robert C. Williams Papermaking Museum in Atlanta, GA, UCLA’s Charles E. Young Research Library, the North Bennet Street School in Boston, MA, and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. A complete tour schedule is online at guildofbookworkers.org.

An accompanying printed exhibition catalog, published this year as a special edition of the Guild of Book Workers’ Journal, will be available for sale at the venues and online at guildofbookworkers.org. The catalog features full color photographs and complete descriptions of each work; biographies of the artists; remarks from jurors Coleen Curry, Graham Patten, and Sarah Smith; and essays by Formation curator Jackie Scott and Guild of Book Workers President Bexx Caswell.

The Formation Exhibition honors the legacy of the book workers’ craft and celebrates some of the finest examples of book arts today. Founded in 1906, the Guild of Book Workers has over 900 members today and is the only national organization dedicated to all of the book arts, including bookbinding, conservation, printing, papermaking, calligraphy, marbling, and artists’ books. At a time when the masses are considering the materiality of the book and its presence or absence as a physical object, it is exciting to showcase the many hand crafts of the book form. The work presented in the Formation Exhibition is a vibrant and dynamic collection of Artists’ Books, Fine Bindings, Fine Press Printing, Calligraphy, and Sculptural Book Works that showcase both the history of the Book Worker’s craft, as well as contemporary interpretations of the book form. The Guild of Book Workers promotes interest in and awareness of the tradition of the book and paper arts by maintaining high standards of workmanship, hosting educational opportunities, and sponsoring exhibits.

Exhibition Schedule:

Minnesota Center for Book Arts
Minneapolis, MN
June 15–October 21, 2018

Robert C. Williams Papermaking Museum
Atlanta, GA
November 1, 2018–March 7, 2019

University of California, Los Angeles
Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery
Los Angeles, CA
March 15–May 25, 2019

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

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

My contributions to the exhibition:

“Hang Out” , 2017. 10.25 x 25 x 8″, mixed media (Book board, canvas, watercolor paper, mulberry paper, hemp cord)

“Black Hang Out“, 2017, mixed media (Book board, canvas, watercolor paper, mulberry paper, hemp cord, acrylic paint)

I am gratified and privileged to participate and look forward to seeing the show when it is at the 
Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles  March 15–May 25, 2019.

Join Us!

TRANSITION II

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TRANSITION II

Transition, convergence, a sea change, a shift…whenever there is change, seismic or not, the axis of our lives seems to move, and maybe it does.

If we think about an axis….we can see how monumental it is when it changes, when changes causes it to move literally or figuratively. Causing us to change, or at least, compelling us to adapt.

ax·is

noun

  1. 1.
    an imaginary line about which a body rotates.
    “the earth revolves on its axis once every 24 hours”

  2. 2.

    MATHEMATICS

    a fixed reference line for the measurement of coordinates.

“the earth revolves on its axis once every 24 hours” gives us a sense of this.  When we think of change this way, even desirable change, even the change we seek, we can see how disorientating it can be. How disorientating it IS.

Thinking back to my last post, I see how I am trying to grapple with my own transition, moving away from forms that have been a mainstay for many years…past work,  site, blog, digital and professional identity, into something something that contains it all.

After nearly seven years in Los Angeles developing new work,

I currently work in the form of the book, in forms inspired by the book, and in new sculptural media of my own devising. Although the work remains tethered to loose definitions of the book as structure, it is moving progressively into other sculptural and conceptual realms where labor, repetition and a passion for the haptic become powerful motivators and themes….

I finally sat down, and updated all my social media platforms.  To change a “page” on Facebook is very complicated, so the moniker “ArtiFactory Studio” remains there… but the information, the essence, is finally updated, as well as on Linked In, Pinterest, and more. It was a relief, and kind of exhilarating to get it done. It was time.

It is interesting to think how we are not only constantly being “profiled”, we profile ourselves. We are willing participants in the continual construction of our identities.  I realized that though how we show up online is critical on one level, on another it isn’t at all…no-one…of the many many folks i interact with around work, ever questioned the disconnect between my social media profiles, and the streams which flowed from them..streams of information, of images, of posts designed to share what I encounter, what I think can be helpful, what I want others to see. It is a construct which should have truth at its center.

With any change, we bring everything with us, every experience, every moment, every breath.

Having worked in the realm of the built environment for many years I am fascinated by the parallels between books and buildings in terms of structure, meaning, utility, architecture and effect. Each creates public and private spaces where stories are “read” on many levels, often revealing more than their authors and makers ever intended. I try to create such places and spaces of inspiration, contemplation, realization and bafflement in my work and to instigate investigation, exploration and discovery in myself and others.

 

TRANSITION I

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TRANSITION I

What a tangled web we weave…

Even when we don’t practice to deceive…

A ways back, I finally transitioned from my long-time blog, “Artissima – The Blog of ArtiFactory Studio, to my new blog at DebraDisman.com.

My last Artissima post announced this move, (for it is indeed a move…just as potent as a physical one), and I let go/discontinued/ceased to pay for my Custom Design on Artissima, knowing that I was moving on, forging ahead, going forward.

And I am…along with my work, my blog, my life. as we all (hopefully) are.  As we all (hopefully) do.
Putting in the requisite work, effort, perseverance and commitment.

Yet, a bit later, I suddenly wanted the Custom Design back, back on my “old” Artissima blog, enhancing, beautifying, communicating and transforming…it.

WordPress had changed their blog design structures and it wasn’t so easy. Somewhat bewildered…at my own emotions and attachments, as well as web protocols, I sought advice from my dear friend and designer, Dianna Jacobsen  of Jacobsen Design.

Dianna had designed both my sites, my Artissima blog, and all my support materials (“marketing collateral”).  She told me, of course, to let it go. Not necessarily to let the old site and blog go, they still live (and radiantly I must say…even after all this time) on the web… but to let go of holding onto the old Custom Design, and my attachment to making and keeping the site and blog (in my mind) absolutely perfect.

“The older sites don’t adapt that well to the current and constantly changing digital environment.” she said (I paraphrase). “Stop ruminating about it, and move on.” (I paraphrase, but you get the idea.)

I needed to hear that.

So much seemed to be changing, much of it changes I had initiated, instigated,  pixel by pixel, but some changes that I hadn’t, – that I definitely would NOT have chosen. All forming what feels like a massive transition, where everything in  the world seems to have gone off its axis, requiring fresh eyes, energy and attitude.

I know this is growth, but sometimes it is confusing, sometimes it is overwhelming, and sometimes it hurts.

But we keep moving along…moment by moment, one foot in from of the other.

“The Whole World is a Narrow Bridge. The Important Thing is Not To Fear.”

Thank you for helping the through the “narrows” this time Dianna!

 

Story Time

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Story Time: BedTime Story I

I am repeating a bit in this post, lingering in my Studio Residency and show of work at Camera Obscura Art Lab at 1450 Ocean in Santa Monica.

I showed a work titled “BedTime Story I“, featuring, or shall I say employing tiny masks; faces of clay, made by my Mother, the ceramicist  Judy Disman.

My Mom had made these tiny faces of clay expressly for me to use in and on my artists’ books, even making tiny holes in them so they could be sewed  into and onto the book structures and become integral to them.

The faces were a natural for a piece about “bed”,  and made the book into a more literal narrative then I had originally intended. I work fairly abstractly, though still in a loose book format, and the addition of representational elements changed the feeling of the piece. It could then be “read” more literally.

The faces even became interactive, with two of them contemplating each other.

Others became sentinels, gazing benevolently out from their “beds”.

Far from creating an image of sleep, the faces express the experience of being wide awake, perhaps listening to, creating, or becoming a story. A bed time story.

The faces become the actors in the story, played out through the pages of the book. Each viewer will read the story in their own way, and reach their own conclusions about it.

We may wonder what the beings or characters expressed or indicated by the faces are thinking, and if they are having sleepless nights. Perhaps they are worried under their smiling visages. Perhaps they are presenting to us a mask, and there are dreams and roiling emotions, even nightmares, underneath.

Perhaps formal, textural,  decorative, haptic or totemic qualities of the work will prevail for some. In any event, BedTime Story I was a pleasure to make.

Again, Mom, thank you for the collaboration, and for creating these tiny pieces for me.
It was great to work with you. Sweet dreams.

 

NEW WORKS Show at 1450 Ocean

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NEW WORKS Show at 1450 Ocean

April 14, 2018.

Textile artist Huong Nguyen and I shared our work with the Public at the Camera Obscura Art Lab at 1450 Ocean in Santa Monica.

It was a wonderful round-up of our Studio Residency activities which took place January through April, 2018.

This post is a “send-off” of sorts to the Residency, which had a profound impact upon me, my work, and Life. Thank you, 1450 Ocean….

A tour around the Studio, as we prepare for our Show.

The spaciousness of space…tables for materials, and visual reminders, inspirations and cues.


The “spinning book” moved around.


Beautiful light off the Ocean flooded the glassed-in Studio.


I finished, if there is such a thing, filling my “sketch” book here.


“Rapunzel“, Book board,  mulberry paper, linen thread, gold thread, untreated canvas; “Window Treatment“, Book board,  file folders, hemp cord, watercolor paper, mulberry paper, acrylic paint, waxes.


“The Fall“, Board, untreated canvas, hemp cord, watercolor paper, mulberry paper.


“Throes of the Body“, Book board, untreated canvas, hemp cord, watercolor paper, mulberry paper.


“In the Profusion“, Book board, untreated canvas, hemp cord, watercolor paper, mulberry paper.


“Burning Bush“, Board, thread, linen thread, dental floss, mulberry paper.


“BedTime Story I”, Book board, wood, fabric, hemp cord, watercolor paper, incorporating tiny ceramic “masks, made by my Mom, the ceramicist Judy Disman.
Mom, it was great to work with you.

Pathways to the next Thing.
We are Travelers.