Presentations

Be My Valentine at the Canoga Park Library

February 21, 2024 By Debra Disman

February 14th, 2024, was a sweet day at the Canoga Park Branch Library!
A group of wonderful and creative participants joined us for “Valentine’s Day Bookmaking”.

Using the accordion fold and sized covers, they created colorful books to which they added stickers, collaged images, drawing and writing, and love!

This program was part of my artist residency “We Write the Book” at the Canoga Park Branch Library, supported by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs!

Hearts galore!

Librarian extraordinaire Marcia Melkonian helps our participants, along with their exemplary caregivers.

Creativity in action.

Gina, an accomplished artist and supporter of our program sets up her own creative space.

The caregivers get into the act.

Lending a helping hand.

The talented Hilary loves orange.

All of Hillary’s elements work together to create a cohesive whole.

It is fascinating how she used the orange-striped washi tape, and extended the pattern upward to create what looks like a fence. Everything os orange color-coordinated.

Then, she added the calendar image of a pinky orange sunset to the top, to complete the scene.

Completed book, with ribbon!

See the participants enjoying the workshop HERE!

K no wing No Safe Place

February 13, 2024 By Debra Disman

K no W Safe Place, 2023
60 x 48 x 48″ canvas, netting, hemp, nylon cotton cord, lace, ribbon, paint, wood

Photo credit: Gene Ogami

Photo Credit: Victoria May

Wake me When it’s Over

“Swept Away: Love Letter To A Surrogate”

February 8, 2024 By Debra Disman

I was thrilled to participate in:
“Swept Away: Love Letter To A Surrogate
organized by:
Warren Neidich, Christina Mossaides Strassfield, Anuradha Vikram and Rene Petropoulos in 2022 to include performances in October 2022 on Long island, NY, and Santa Monica, CA in April 2023.

Swept Away began in September 2022, when 65 Los Angeles County artists sent “love letters” to 65 artists on the East End of Long Island who responded with live performances on East Hampton’s Main Beach in September and October. In April 2023, the reverse took place with 65 West Coast artists creating performances inspired by and in response to their East Coast counterparts’ letters. On April 22 and 23, 2023, up to five simultaneous performances took place during the hours of 8 am-12 pm and 4-10 pm on Santa Monica State Beach in front of Annenberg Community Beach House.

Participating artists included 18th Street Art Center local artists-in-residence Melissa Altshuler, Debra Disman, Lionel Popkin, Susan Kleinberg, Yrneh Gabon, Marcus Kuiland-Nazario and Dan Kwong.

My work, “The Center Will Not Hold” was performed with Deborah Lynn Irmas and Frida Cano on Santa Monica Beach at the Annenberg Beach House.

“Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate/s” is a community oriented artistic project that aims to create a transcontinental heartbeat across America. It is hoped that through its combined gestures and performances, a sense of solidarity, so desperately missing today, will emerge with which to confront the ecological catastrophe at our doorstep.”

65 Los Angeles County artists presented live performances over Earth Day Weekend: April 22 and 23, 2023 at the Santa Monica State Beach near the Annenberg Community Beach House on the Pacific Ocean.
“The Center Will Not Hold” was one of them.

A compilation video of the Santa Monica performances can be seen HERE.
https://youtu.be/hJUOFMVXHE0
Video by Matias Munoz-Rodriguez, Fu the Dog Productions

As Warren said: “I hope we created a transcontinental heartbeat.”

HERE is a video of the East Hampton event.
and links to the 4 videos of the nights of performances:

9/10 – https://youtu.be/Z0pnmpt7P2g (Edited by Joe Brondo)

9/17 – https://youtu.be/Dt3WuqcP7Bg (Footage by Anzhelika Tolstikhina, John Driver, Sutton Lynch, and Joe Brondo. Edited by Joe Brondo.)
9/24 – https://youtu.be/2vxMXWWiJio (Footage by Anzhelika Tolstikhina, John Driver, Bronte Zunis, and Joe Brondo. Edited by Joe Brondo.)The list of East End and West Coast artist pairings was as follows:

EAST END ARTISTS >> LOS ANGELES ARTISTS:
Suzanne Anker > > Margarethe Drexel
Elena Bajo > > Jasmine Orpilla
Lillian Ball > > Dana Berman Duff
Monica Banks > > Jamie Ross
Dianne Blell > > Lisa Anne Auerbach
Scott Bluedorn > > Robby Herbst
Megan Chaskey > > Lionel Popkin
Scott Chaskey > > Kathryn Andrews
Philippe Cheng > > David Horvitz
Andrea Cote > > Nina Waisman
Ivana Dama > > Rodrigo Arruda
Peter Dayton > > Anita Pace
Katrina Del Mar + Chris Jones > > Taisha Paggett + Meital Yaniv
Jeremy Dennis + Beau Bree Rhee > > Debra Disman
Sabra Moon Elliot > > Rochelle Fabb
Carol Edwards > > Pamela Hudson
Eva Faye > > Patty Chang + David Kelley
Saskia Friedrich > > Fran Siegel
Margaret Garrett > > Susan Kleinberg
Veronica Gonzalez Peña > > Cassandra Marketo
Kimberly Goff > > Cheri Gaulke + Xochi Maberry-Gaulke
Jeremy Grosvenor > > Vincent Johnson
Jerelyn Hanrahan + Laura Ross White > > Andrew Berardini
Candace Hill Montgomery > > Anna Joy Springer
Virva Hinnemo > > Sam Shoemaker
Alice Hope > > Krysten Cunningham
Erica-Lynn Huberty > > Sandeep Mukherjee
Terri Hyland > > Joseph Mosconi
Ruby Jackson > > Alice Könit
No Partner > > Carolyn Castano
Nishan Kazazian > > Beatriz Cortez
Carlos Lama >> No Partner
No Partner > > Badly Licked Bear
Christine Lidrbauch > > Sterling Wells
Donald Lipski > > Raul Baltazar
Sutton Lynch > > Yrneh Gabon Brown
No Partner > > Jiayun Chen
Tanya Minhas > > Allison Wyper
Richard Mothes > > Kristin Calabrese
Michelle Murphy > > Sarah Beadle
Jill Musnicki > > Victoria Vesna
Lois Nesbitt > > Lucia Santini Ribisi
Eileen O’Kane Kornreich > > Iman Person
Jaanika Peerna > > Marcus Kuiland Nazario
Dalton Portella > > Ryat Yezbick
Toni Ross > > Sharon Barnes
David Rothenberg > > May Sun
Will Ryan > > Jody Zellen
Sara Salaway > > Melinda Altshuler
Matthew Satz > > Katie Grinnan
Bastienne Schmidt > > Jisoo Chung
Barry Schwabsky > > David Schafer
Christine Sciulli > > Karen Lofgren
Arlene Slavin > > Jenny Yurshansky
Janice Stanton > > Kearra Gopee
Christina Sun > > Catherine Scott
Carol Szymanski with David Adewomi > > Xiouping (Whitworth)
Sara VanDerBeek > > Alicia Serling
Ryan Wallace > > Joshua Aster
Ross Watts > > Justine Harari
Allan Wexler > > Dan Kwong
Nina Yankowitz > > Francesca Gabbiani
Darius Yektai > > Barbara McCarren + Jud Fine
Almond Zigmund > > Marissa Mandler

In Reflection: “Three Sisters And Their Mother” and more

February 5, 2024 By Debra Disman

I was thrilled to have a solo exhibition last winter at ReflectSpace Gallery, part of Glendale Arts and Culture, in the Glendale Central Library which opened Saturday January 28th and was on view through March 19,2023.
The show, a dream come true that I did not even know I had, was curated by the wonderful Ara and Anahid Oshagan of The City of Glendale and founders of the gallery..

I was fortunate to have master photographer Gene Ogami document the show.

I share here two images featuring a work entitled, “Three Sisters And Their Mother”, which engages a concept and presentation I am still exploring.

“Three Sisters and Their Mother” (2022), made of canvas, acrylic paint, hemp cord, sunlight and gravity, is approximately 30” x 72”. Its dimensions are variable depending on how it is installed, the intervals of space between the components or sections, the way its ever-tangling cord/string wanders across each section, how high or low to the ceiling or the floor it is positioned, and how much in relief from the wall it is hung. As Eva Hesse once said about a work or works of hers… Can it be different every time…? (paraphrase). Naomi Spector writes beautifully about these ideas as regards to Hesse’s work.

Also pictured are: (below and clockwise from “Three Sisters And Their Mother”)
“I Can’t I Won’t I Will I Do”, (The titular work in the show), 2022,13 x 71.5”, repurposed table runner, acrylic paint, linen thread
“Finally”, (can hang on wall in slight relief), 2022, 48 x 19.5”, canvas, lace, hemp cord, sewing thread
“Excavation of the Interior”, 2021, 12″ x 28″ x 12.5″, wood, mulberry paper, canvas, muslin, watercolor paper, hemp cord, linen thread
Our human connections, gossamer though they may seem, form a tangled web that is always changing, and in some ways unfathomable, but there and always mysterious.