Debra Disman

Artist

Presentations

Be The Change Book Festival: Bookmaking Workshops II

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I was thrilled to lead three bookmaking workshops at the Glendale Central Library as part of Glendale Library Arts and Culture
on Saturday, February 25: 10:00am – 11:00am, 1:00pm – 2:00pm, 3:00pm – 4:00pm

“Make Your Own Books with Debra Disman – Bookmaker and ReflectSpace Gallery exhibiting artist”
Glendale Central Library – ReflectSpace Annex
I worked with families, individuals and groups who learned how to create fun and fabulous handmade books using folding, cutting and gluing techniques.

Presented as part of:

Be the Change Book Festival – Be the Change Series at Glendale Central Library
Held Saturday, February 25: 10:00am – 4:00pm
 A marvelous day-long event which celebrated diverse voices in reading at the Book Festival with author talks, local book vendors, food trucks, DJ, and activities for all ages.

        

Enjoy my solo show and other exhibitions in the Library!
I Can’t I Won’t I Will I Do Exhibition by Debra Disman – ReflectSpace Gallery
Through March 26th!
Glendale Central Library
A solo exhibition featuring Los Angeles-based artist Debra Disman.

“Fifty Years of Fiber” Show Catalogue!

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It was an honor to participate in:

See the online exhibition  catalogue HERE!

The annual Fiber Artists of San Antonio 2022 Art Exhibition was held November 6 through December 9 2022, at the Kelso Art Center, University of Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX. The theme of the exhibit, “50 Years of Fiber Art,” celebrated the organization’s half century history. The show presented fiber artists from across the U.S. considering each decade since the 1970s as inspiration for their fiber art work.

*DEFINITION OF FIBER, as extracted from Merriam-Webster Dictionary: 1. A thread or structure or object resembling a thread; 2. A slender and greatly elongated natural or synthetic filament) such as wool, cotton, gold, asbestos, glass or rayon) which typically can be spun into yarn; 3. Material made of fibers (includes paper), fabric, plastic or metal fibers, tapestry, art cloth.

The exhibition was juried by Paula Owen.
Owen, president emerita of Southwest School of Art, began her tenure in1996, following 11 years as the Director of the Visual Arts Center in Richmond, Virginia. Under her leadership the school’s size, scope, and reputation grew significantly, and in 2014 a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program was added. In 2022 Southwest School of Art and University of Texas at San Antonio announced a merger to create a new and expanded school of art.

Owen has served as curator of numerous exhibits and on national and regional boards and panels, including the Pew Artist Fellowships, the Bush Foundation Fellowships, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a published arts writer and co-authored the book, Objects and Meaning: New Perspec5ves on Art and Craft:, published by Scarecrow Press. Most recently, her essay “Fabrication and Encounter: When Content is a Verb,” was published in Maria Elena Buzcek’s book, Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art.

Owen earned an MFA in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University and continues to show her work in group and solo shows throughout the nation.

I was thrilled to win the second place award for my work:
“Rent Wound Tear, Mend Heal Repair”, 2022, 64 x 68″ (dimensions variable), Triptych Installation
This exhibition was the first time this triptych was shown outside of Los Angeles.

See the online exhibition  catalogue HERE and see the wondrous works of all the accomplished artists in whose company I was honored to show.
Thank you to all involved.

Visioning the New Year with the Panorama Branch Library

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In December, 2021, we completed our  2021-22 Artist Residency in bookmaking  at the the Panorama City Branch Library, supported by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

I say “we” rather than “I”, as this was a team effort with the Library Staff, and of course, the DCA, always supportive!

During our residency “CULMINATION EVENT” participants created “Vision Journals” to welcome the New Year, and help them set intentions and goals for 2022.

Our online event was well-attended, fun and inspiring.
A wonderful way to complete the Residency, the year, and gather our strength, resiliency, hope, imagination and creativity to move into 2022!

Unfolding Possibilities: Something to Ponder for the New Year

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What do we seek, yearn for, want, crave, need, are motivated to strive for, for this New Year coming up?

What is Possible?
And

How do we Achieve it?

What are the Possibilities, and how do we Realize them, in this day and age, in this present moment, under our current circumstances, confronted by challenges seemingly too numerous to count, much less take in?


Unfolding Possibilities, (front cover) 2021, 6+ x 78″ x 6+”, mixed media artists’ book

We have to somehow move forward in a positive way, keep on truckin’, keep on trying, keep at it, continue, keep on keeping on.
We have to try, each in our own way. Hopefully, something will line up.


Unfolding Possibilities, (closed) 2021, 6+ x 78″ x 6+”, mixed media artists’ book

An initiative of the Los Angeles Count Department of Mental Health, Why We Rise LA took place in May 2021, supporting hundreds of Community Arts & Culture Projects which took place across all Los Angeles County neighborhoods, in partnership with more than 100 community groups, artists, grassroots leaders, healers and other LA County Departments. These projects and collaborations included mural making, ancestral healing workshops, a Countywide public literary art project, a Countywide chalk art program and more to celebrate the remarkable resources and communities in LA County and used arts-based strategies for healing and wellbeing.

I was honored to teach a workshop as part of Why We Rise LA 2021 in coordination with 18th Street Art Center’sArts Learning Lab @ Home: called: Bookmaking with Self-Compassion.
See the workshop HERE!
Nearly 70 online participants learned to create the “Flower Fold” book structure, then added embellishment, images, and words expressing their experience of the pandemic, where they are at now, what they learned, what they wanted to share, their hopes, wishes, dreams, cares , fears, realizations, trauma, expressing the full gamut of human emotions.

The range of words submitted was wide-ranging, thought-provoking and evocative….including opposite emotions and experiences and bits of truth-telling, realizations and wisdom participants seemed eager to pass on to others in other words, humanness in its multiplicity.

I took the words generated by this workshop, and requested from the community at large, and stitched them into an Artists’ Book I made as a community collaboration, entitled, “Unfolding Possibilities“.  (“Unfolding Possibilities – Possibilities Unfolding”).  Videographer Jeny Amaya created a video of the project which was screened during the 18th Street Art Center event, “Left/Right/Here“

Unfolding Possibilities, Possibilities Unfolding: the making of above.

Unfolding Possibilities, (interior) 2021, 6+ x 78″ x 6+”, mixed media artists’ book
Unfolding Possibilities, (interior detail) 2021, 6+ x 78″ x 6+”, mixed media artists’ book

When confronted with what seems like overwhelming odds, and not in your/our, favor, try making something, try creating. Here is a workshop to show you how to do it, just one of countless, infinite ways you can make something (out of almost nothing-), create something, experience working with your hands and heart and imagination, craft something, fashion something, and perhaps share this with others. Relax your heart and soul and play. Just see, if you do not emerge, like the butterfly, stronger for the effort. Enjoy. See what happens.

Wishing You the absolute best, healthiest, most creative, most supportive, safest, and imaginative, New Year, now and ever.

Here. We . Go.

“MOSTLY MONOCHROME” from WoArt!

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I have been thrilled to be included in the exhibition, Mostly Monochrome, presented online by the loved and respected  WoArt Blog, and curated by WoArtBlog founder,  Christina Massey, offering a strong platform for Women Artists.

November 1 – 30th, 2021

www.woartblog.com.

“Mostly Monochrome” is an online exhibition featuring artists using a mostly monochromatic approach to the creation of their work. Artworks with the reduced variant of color grab their viewers attention instead through their process, materials, composition and tonality.

As one scrolls through the exhibition, you’ll be visually transitioning through subtle shifts in the monochromatic palette and visually stimulated through the juxtaposition of works from minimal color field paintings to extremely detailed and laborious drawings and sculptures.

Viewers are invited to scroll through the wide range of artistic styles and explore the work in the virtual gallery slideshow. Click on the images to get further details and make any purchases of Artworks.

Support the work of Women Artists, shop the online store!

Featuring Artists:

Laura Ahola-Young, Lois Bender, Laurey Bennett-Levy, Angelica Bergamini, Carol Bouyoucos, Clare Burson, Ai Campbell, Jaynie Crimmins, Marianne DeAngelis, Debra Disman, Pauline Galiana, Veronika Golova, Carolynn Haydu, Erin Juliana, Rachel Kohn, Parvathi Kumar, Barbara Laube, Bonny Leibowitz, Seren Morey, Jane Nodine, Judith Ornstein, Dara Oshin, Barbara Owen, Lily Prince, Eve Provost Chartrand, Robin Roi, Andra Samelson, Amy Sands, Mary Shah, Barbara Sherman, Christina Smith, Lauren Smith, Judi Tavill, Jessica Tawczynski, Shira Toren, Ellen Weider, Odeta Xheka, Emna Zghal, Tamar Zinn

I am honored to have two works presented in the show, “Before the Fall”, and “Profusion”, pictured below.

Hear our discussion on Clubhouse!
Artists Who AND…, ”Artists…giving back to the creative community”:  Debra Disman/Lois Bender/Laurey Bender-Levy, Clubhouse, November 17, 2021

Celebrating Día de Muertos with Papel Picado!

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In celebration of  Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), I led a bookmaking workshop that featured Papel Picado (The art and craft of decorative cut paper) as part of my artist residency in bookmaking  at the the Panorama City Branch Library, supported by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Participants learned the Accordion Fold  technique, and used it to create 11″ high  Accordion Fold Books.

They then created simple Papel Picado  designs, exploring paper cutting techniques using tissue paper sheets, and added these  colorful (or black-) works to our books in various ways.

All of the techniques and materials demonstrated online, through Zoom.

The participants were adventurous, good-humored, and supportive of each other as they moved through the process, and created the  beautiful works pictured below.

BRAVO!

This is truly teaching artistry, and learning,  for the 21st Century!

 


Using the simplest techniques, participants used color and cutting to create wondrous designs, which they layered onto to and into their Accordion Fold Books.


Paper cutting using the thin sheets of tissue paper can be demanding under the best of circumstances,. I marveled at what our participants were able to accomplish guided by an online workshop!


Here, black tissue paper is employed to magical and mysterious effect.


Participants also used origami paper to create their Papel Picado designs.


Participants joined the workshop from Arizona, Montreal, and across Los Angeles County, some with grandchildren, demonstrating the potential of the internet and its global reach.


Photographing through a computer screen can be challenging, but the brilliance of these colors and repeated cut-out designs cannot be denied!