Debra Disman

Artist

  •

ARTISTS

Inspired By Great Artists: Keeping the Faith

By

One of the Great Artists my students were inspired by this past summer was the amazing Faith Ringgold, inventor of the “Story Quilt“.

Inspired by Faith, students created a “quilt” through the combination of felt, textiles, fabric and painting on canvass, embellished with buttons, “pom poms”, ribbon and more, then painted borders to add to their quilts.

As a side project, some students created painted compositions using their names. It was fascinating to see that they used the same color combinations in both.

Our End of Class Show…a line-up of Faith Ringgold-inspired textile collages

Students had their own “color stories” as well, which repeated throughout their works.

The students employed a variety of materials in create an impressive amount of detail.

 

The students, all girls aged 9-11, seemed to pour their hearts into this project, working on it for twice the time planned.

Inspiring!

Sharing Shows 5: “THE ARTFUL BOOK”

By

I am excited and honored to be included in a number of current and upcoming shows across the US, and will be sharing about them in blog form, as well as in the EVENTS section of my website, as a way of further describing and chronicling my practice, honoring colleagues, and sharing gratitude for these opportunities and the people, organizations and institutions that make them happen. Shout out to ElonSchoenholz, Photographer extraordinaire who took the photographs below of “Profusion“, which will be shown in:

“The Artful Book”
California Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers Member Exhibit
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA

The Artful Book
October 4, 2019 – January 5, 2020
“Today, artists who work in the Book Arts create fine and design bindings, fine press and letterpress editions, calligraphy, broadsides, handmade paper, and artist books. Visitors to The Artful Book will see outstanding contemporary examples of the Book Arts created by members of the California Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers. From finely crafted and superbly designed limited edition books to one-of-a-kind sculptural art objects, these artists let their imaginations soar and put their skills in the service of one of man’s best creations, the book. The Artful Book exhibition and related programming are made possible by lead support from The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation with additional generous support from the Bess J. Hodges Foundation.”

I will be showing three pieces:

Profusion
2018
8.75″ x 24.5″ x 7.75″
Bookboard, canvas, hemp cord, mulberry paper

In The Thicket of It 
2018
18″ x 30″ x 23″
Book board, canvas, acrylic paint, hemp cord, mulberry paper, wood

Falling
2019
11″ x 23″ x 7.5″
Bookboard, canvas,  hemp cord, mulberry paper

The Long Beach Museum of Art is a wondrous place by the sea..with a beautiful garden featuring a water sculpture by Claire Falkenstein Structure and Flow.

See you there!

Sharing Shows 3: “BRAND 47”

By


I am excited and honored to be included in a number of current and upcoming shows across the US, and will be sharing about them in blog form, as well as in the EVENTS  section of my website, as a way of further describing and chronicling my practice, honoring colleagues, and sharing gratitude for these opportunities and the people, organizations and institutions that make them happen. Shout out to Bernard Wolf, Photographer extraordinaire who took the last two photographs below of “Burning Bush“,


which will be shown in:

The 47th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper

Exhibition: September 7th – October 25th
Brand Library & Art Center
1601 West Mountain Street
Glendale, CA 91201

Brand Library & Art Center announces its 47th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper.

This year  Alma Ruiz, an independent curator, Senior Fellow at Sotheby’s Institute of Art/Claremont Graduate University and a member of the Advisory Committee for the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in Miami as our juror.

Ruiz brings a wealth of experience to Brand 47 as a former senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles who has also curated internationally in Mexico, Argentina, Israel and Guatemala. Ruiz has acted as a juror for numerous exhibitions and biennials in the United States and Latin America and is the author of numerous essays and articles.  Alma Ruiz reviewed more than 1000 submissions, of which 93 were selected for the exhibition.

Brand 47 is organized by the Associates of Brand Library & Art Center, an all-volunteer 501(c)3 non-profit that raises funds to support the extensive free and public events offered at Brand, including exhibits in the gallery, classical and popular music performances, film screenings, and dance performances. This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the Associates, a milestone which will be celebrated throughout 2019. Entry fees and sales from Brand 47 and every Annual Works on Paper Exhibition are utilized by the Associates to continue the important cultural programming that Brand Library & Art Center brings to the community.


“Burning Bush”, Interior/Open


“Burning Bush”, Exterior/Open

I am thrilled and humbled to be participating in this Brand (new for 2019) show and continuing tradition at this venerable institution of Southern California. 

 

Sharing Shows 1: “OFFAL”

By

I am excited and honored to be included in a number of current and upcoming shows across the US, and will be sharing about them in blog form, as well as in the EVENTS  section of my website, as a way of further describing and chronicling my practice, honoring colleagues, and sharing gratitude for these opportunities and the people, organizations and institutions that make them happen. Shout out to Steven Wong, astrobuddha and Curator at the LAMAG/the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Elon Schoenholz, Photographer extraordinaire.

First up is not too awful, just a little bit

“OFFAL”

August 15 – September 29
Opening reception: Sunday, August 11, 2 – 5 PM

The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery presents Offal, a group exhibition conceived from the subject of offal (ˈôfəl,ˈäfəl) or the culture of consuming innards.

WOW.

“Of all cultural taboos, those related to food are the most difficult to dispel. Food represents deeply rooted sets of ideas and beliefs — particularly with respect to self-identity and community. Offal is no different. In some cultures, offal is stigmatized for its socioeconomic and racial implications, while others treat and eat offal as an everyday means of survival or a delicacy. In keeping with this anatomy of offal, the exhibition seeks to expand the traditional parameters of cultural identity: raw, refigured and, in some cases, delightfully grotesque.” —OFFAL

I will be showing “Throes of the Body“,  sculptural Artists’ Book, 13 x 27 x 10.25”, mixed media, 2018

Side view, open/outside-inside

Front view, open/inside

Back view, open/outside
Photos: Elon Schoenholz  (Beautiful work…)

“The exhibition features a variety of work from forty-three Los Angeles-based contemporary artists who use traditional and unconventional techniques and media in their approach to the five overlapping themes that feed into the exhibition: labor, discard and waste, transcultural idioms, cultural retention and shame, and the abject. Notable works include Jim Shaw’s Dream Object (Digestive tract sculpture), a mixed media sculpture exploring their “inner” unconscious psyche; Victoria Reynolds’s oil paintings and charcoal drawings that give life to disemboweled organs while simultaneously serving as a memento mori of unfamiliar culinary cuts/organs only found in specialty “ethnic” markets; Danial Nord’s Sleeper, a video-driven sculptural fountain in the form of a translucent sculpture molded from his own body that examines the individual and societal consumption and digestion of today’s political rhetoric – on exhibit for the first time in Los Angeles; and a video collaboration between Gazelle Samizay and Labkhand Olfatmanesh that explores émigrés food traditions that can often outlive language through sanctifying ceremonies and family bonds.

At its heart, the exhibition seeks to unpack and celebrate the city of Los Angeles’ relationship to diversity and food in all of its forms — ultimately speaking to the offal in all of us.

Artists participating in Offal were selected from an open call for entries by a jury comprised of Ron Finley, proponent of urban gardening and South LA community leader; Julio César Morales, artist, educator, and curator; and Genevieve Erin O’Brien, artist, culinary adventurer and community organizer.

The selected artists include Panteha Abareshi, Edmund Arevalo, Phoebe Barnum, Andrea Bogdan, Johanna Breiding, SoYun Cho, Heisue Chung-Matheu, Ciriza, Debra Disman, Alexandre Dorriz, gloria galvez, Natalia Garcia Clark, Matt Hollis, Sara Hunsucker, Grace Hwang, Sarah Julig, Shannon Keller, Sydney Mills, Leo Mondor, Flavia Monteiro, Albert Natian, Alex Nazari, Jim Newberry, Dakota Noot, Avital Oehler, Labkhand Olfatmanesh, Abel Olivieri, Elisa Ortega Montilla, Carolie Parker, Antonia Price, Colin Roberts, Larisa Safaryan, Gazelle Samizay, Stephanie Sherwood, Emilia Ukkonen and Reed van Brunschot.

In addition, a selection of artists were invited to participate in the exhibition, including Bonnie Huang, Robert Karimi, Mark Mulroney, Danial Nord, Victoria Reynolds, Jim Shaw, Jeannine Shinoda and Jeffrey Vallance.” — OFFAL

It will be just “offally” fascinating, to see what everyone has done…can’t wait for this one!

Is not our work really, truly finished until it has been seen?

FORMATION at UCLA: The Exhibition (5)

By

“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)

By

“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

“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

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.