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Debra Disman

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Teaching Artist

Getting Organized with Bookmaking at the Canoga Park Branch Library!

August 20, 2023 By Debra Disman

We held our second  “We Write the Book” artist residency program at the Canoga Park Branch Library on August 19, 2023.

The series, supported by the wonderful Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, will offer 11 hands-on bookmaking workshops and a culmination event to the community free of charge, with all materials included

In the spirit of getting organized for the new academic year, I taught participants ranging from small children to seniors how to create an accordion-fold book with pockets, add covers, then sew in “signatures” (gatherings of folded pages), to make their books super organizing tools, with places to store notes, make notes, and take notes!

The series, supported by the wonderful Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, will offer 11 hands-on bookmaking workshops and a culmination event to the community free of charge, with all materials included!

Participants from children to teens to families to seniors learned how to create the accordion fold book structure and add pockets, then develop their books with a variety of decorative and print materials to make them their own.  A good time was had by all, as those attending learned new skills, socialized and inspired each other with their book creations!
Even the Librarians got into the act!

Children’s Librarian Luz and teen volunteer Scott supported participants while creating their own books!


Scott cuts lengths of beautiful striped and glittering paper cord for participants to use in sewing their signatures into the folds of their accordion structures.


Library volunteer Carmen and participant Laura move through the process.


Stellar participant Gina helps fellow student.


We were joined by an energetic family of five, helmed by this intrepid Mom!


Playing with color, textures, design and form are the nuts and bolts of the process. Participants made creative decisions and learned about themselves in the process, while gaining skills in folding, cutting, sewing and gluing.

We hope to see everhone back next month, at 12:00 noon on Saturday September 23rd!

Filed Under: Artist in Residence, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Presentations, Student Work, Teaching Artist Tagged With: Accordion, Accordion Book Structure, Accordion Fold, Accordion Fold Book, Accordion fold book with sewn signatures, Artist Residency, Artist Residency Culmination, Book, Book as Art, Book Structures, BOOKBINDING, Bookmaking, Books made by Hand, Books with Pockets, Canoga Park Branch Library, Canoga Park Library, Community Artmaking, COMMUNITY BOOKMAKING, Culmination, DCA LA, DCA-funded artist residency, Getting organized, Handmade Books, Intergenerational Arts workshops, LAPL, Librarians, Los Angeles Public Library, Making Books Together, mixed media books, Organization, Self-expression, Starting school year, Summer reading, The Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Los Angeles

Making Flag Books at the Brand!

August 15, 2023 By Debra Disman

I was thrilled to lead a fun and fabulous flag book workshop at the Brand Library and Art Center in Glendale!

Supported by The Associates of Brand, the workshop was held in conjunction with Brand 51: Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper, now on view in the Brand Library and Art Center galleries.

I am honored to be showing in this exhibition, and it provided an excellent context the workshop, in which participants learned how to make the versatile accordion folded spine and combine image and text in a way that allowed them to become author, artist, designer and writer in one fell swoop!

We dedicated the workshop to the creative efforts of all those facing challenges caused by the fires that raged on Maui.

A meaningful time was had by all.


Assembling the components, Covers, flag pages, and accordion spine (to be folded).


Using a wooden tool designed for ceramics to assist in folding.


Cutting up treasures to create more treasures!


Adding personal writing.


Writing in a personally created language and alphabet!


Adding maps.


Using origami paper, and origami methods!


Here’s to the black, white and brown!


Creatively employing the exhibition postcard as book covers.


A beautiful marriage of image, text, design, art and craft!
The message of this piece says it all….

May it be so.

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Exhibitions, Presentations, Student Work, Teaching Artist Tagged With: Associates of Brand, Book, Book as Art, Book Structures, BOOKBINDING, Bookmaking, Books made by Hand, brand, Brand 51, Brand 51 Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper, Brand Library and Art Center, Canoga Park Branch Library, Canoga Park Library, Community Artmaking, COMMUNITY BOOKMAKING, Creating travel journals, Culmination, DCA LA, DCA-funded artist residency, Flag Book, folded and glued book, folded book, Glendale, Glendale Arts and Culture, Handmade Book, Handmade Books, Intergenerational Arts workshops, LAPL, Librarians, Los Angeles Public Library, Making Books Together, mixed media books, Self-expression

Bookmaking at the Community Corporation of Santa Monica With 18th Street Arts Center!

July 26, 2023 By Debra Disman

I had the wonderful opportunity to lead a bookmaking workshop through 18th Street Arts Center for the Community Corporation of Santa Monica at one of their residential buildings.

Supported by the magical Leigh Ann Hahn and intern Ning Sun, I taught an engaging and creative group how to create the “Folded Fan Book” structure, and encouraged them to make their project their own through conceptual development and adornment, utilizing a marvelous array of decorative papers, stickers and leveraging  their own imaginations!


I am always amazed and humbled at the extent of people’s creativity, ability and efforts.
Bravo…

Filed Under: Artist in Residence, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Student Work, Teaching Artist Tagged With: 18th Street Arts Center, Accodion book, Accordion Binding, Accordion Fold Book, CCSM, COMMUNITY BOOKMAKING, Community Corporation of Santa Monica, Family Art Education, Folded and glued handmade books, Making Books Together, The Book As Art

“We Write the Book” Artist Residency: Goodbye and Hello

July 15, 2023 By Debra Disman

It is bittersweet to complete my third year as Artist-in-Residence for the West Valley Regional Branch Library supported by the wonderful Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs!
Our “We Write the Book” series offered hands-on bookmaking workshops and culmination event for over 171 intergenerational  participants from a variety of backgrounds from July of 2022 through June of 2023.

View a slideshow video of our projects here!

https://debradisman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CULMINATION_WVRBL_2022-23.mp4

See what participants have to say here!

I am thrilled to begin a new year-long residency at the Canoga Park Branch Library July 18th, 2023!  Our new “We Write the Book” program will run through June 2023, and offer hands-on bookmaking workshops on a monthly basis to the public.

Our next workshop will be August 19th at noon.

So, goodbye to West Valley, and hello to Canoga Park. We invite You to Join us for fun, learning, community, creativity and self-expression!

 

Filed Under: Artist in Residence, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Presentations, Student Work, Teaching Artist Tagged With: Artist Residency, Artist Residency Culmination, Asian American, Book, Book as Art, Book Structures, BOOKBINDING, Bookmaking, Books made by Hand, Canoga Park Branch Library, Canoga Park Library, Community Artmaking, COMMUNITY BOOKMAKING, Creating travel journals, Culmination, DCA LA, DCA-funded artist residency, Handmade Books, Intergenerational Arts workshops, Kevin Hasely, LAPL, Librarians, Los Angeles Public Library, Making Books Together, mixed media books, Self-expression, Summer reading, Summer travel, The Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Los Angeles, Travel, Travel Journal, West Valley Regional Branch Library

CanvasRebel Interview: “Meet Debra Disman”

July 11, 2023 By Debra Disman

I was honored to be interviewed by CanvasRebel Magazine!

STORIES & INSIGHTS

Meet Debra Disman

Avatar photoSTORIES & INSIGHTSJUNE 22, 2023
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We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Debra Disman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Debra below.

Debra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I have been privileged to do many wonderful and challenging projects over the years, but I would say the two I am most excited about currently are my book, “CONCURRENCIES: Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: Genius, Trauma and the Creative Imagination”, an exploration through images of the commonalities between the lives and work of artists Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse, published by ReflectSpace Gallery/Glendale Arts and Culture in conjunction with my solo show “I Can’t I Won’t I Will I Do” which was held there in 2023; and “The Center Will Not Hold”, a performance piece done as part of “Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate”, which was a community-oriented artistic project that aimed to create a transcontinental heartbeat across America. With two collaborators, I was one of 65 Los Angeles County artists who presented live performances over Earth Day Weekend 2023 at the Santa Monica State Beach near the Annenberg Community Beach House. It was a fantastic experience, and we hope to further develop the piece!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Born and raised in the Chicago area, the Chicago Art Institute became my second home. I took art classes growing up both in and out of school. In high school, I also started working in community arts as a volunteer and continued this when I went to college at the University of Iowa. I was an art major with a focus on painting but also studied drawing, printmaking, literature and creative writing, and was in the Iowa Undergraduate Writers’ Workshop in Poetry. I have always had a passionate interest in both image and text (“art and writing” as we used to call it!) and their interrelationship, and have sought ways to put them together, as evidenced in the work I do now, which traverses book objects, sculpture, installation and hanging tapestry works.

In college I also studied a year in France, learning the language and traveling extensively, imbibing masterworks, architecture, landscape and craft, which sparked a lifelong love of travel and cultural explorations. I have taught since the very beginning of my career. When I moved to San Francisco after college, I began teaching at the De Young Museum and through their urban outreach program, which has informed my work ever since as a teaching artist for many years in the Bay Area and now across Los Angeles County, engaging diverse communities. Working as both a solo practitioner alone in the studio and in the public sphere of community engagement are interrelated aspects of my practice, and offer a rich life filled with creative challenges and rewards, in which to grow, continue to learn and develop, and thrive.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think it is very important to teach entrepreneurial and business skills including budgeting, financial planning, networking and the ability to source and follow-up on opportunities. Studio space is at a premium, and artists are masters of using what is available! It is critical to provide affordable studio space through city, county, state and federal initiatives and budget allocations, and for government at all levels to recognize that investment in the arts is fundamental to create and maintain a healthy and thriving society.
We must recognize and fight unnecessary gatekeeping and bureaucracy, unproductive and restrictive elitism and status issues and unhealthy competitiveness, hierarchy and internalized pecking orders by providing opportunities to students, emerging, mid-career and established artists in the form of education, exhibitions, presentations and gatherings and support systems.
We must continue to address inequities as regards to race, gender and class which can severely limit opportunities and challenge basic functioning in the art world and world-at-large through civil rights activities, legislation and providing opportunities geared to those disregarded by the system.
There are institutional and organizational efforts being made to combat, mitigate and better these conditions, but it is slow-going, and it remains to be seen whether such efforts will continue and grow or whether they will be revealed to be a trend, momentarily capturing our ever-decreasing attention spans.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had a San Francisco-based entrepreneurial enterprise for 15 years called ArtiFactory Studio, which provided decorative painting, color consultation, surface design and murals to individuals, organizations and businesses, and I really loved it! I continued to teach at this time, and went through the certificate programs of both the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center in San Francisco and the International Association of Colour Consultants/Designers in San Diego to further develop my skills in those areas. Later, in Los Angeles, I attended the UCLArts and Healing Social and Emotional Arts (SEA) Certificate Program, The Annenberg—Inner-City Arts Professional Development Program and “Creativity” series, and the Cal State Los Angeles/City of LA Department of Cultural Affairs Community Teaching Artist Program to provide resources, information, further skills and support for my teaching. I found gathering with others in learning communities invaluable! Not only for information, but for networking and sharing. I was in Business Network International (BNI) for two years in San Francisco and learned so much being around other professionals in an organized way, and surmounting that learning curve! It really prepared me for the groups I am involved with now. I learned that nothing is that different…all people generally want the same things: kindness, listening, understanding and support.

When I relocated to Los Angeles in 2012, I knew I wanted to recommit to an evolving studio practice and teach in the community. I began proposing bookmaking and other workshops to my local Library, and to my delighted surprise, was able to start teaching almost right away. I had made artists’ books and taught bookmaking in San Francisco, but took the object of the book and the teaching of bookmaking to a whole other level in Los Angeles, which has developed into an ever-widening engagement with materials and multiple formats. There is so much opportunity here in LA if one is ready to work consistently and put oneself out there! By dint of persistent and concentrated effort, I have been able to develop a multi-faceted practice which has allowed me to exhibit my work in galleries, museums, universities and libraries across LA and the US and teach in an array of community settings and institutions. I am honored to be an enthusiastic local artist in residence at 18th Street Arts Center, serve as an artist-in-residence for the City of LA Department of Cultural Affairs, and to have received a Santa Monica Artist Fellowship in 2021. As in all things, the reward for work is more work!

Contact Info:

  • Website: https://debradisman.com/
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artifactorystudio/
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debra.disman
  • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debradisman/
  • Other: https://18thstreet.org/artists/debra-disman/

Image Credits
All images: Gene Ogami 2023

Suggest a Story: CanvasRebel is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, New Work, Publications/Interviews, Teaching Artist, TEXTILE/FIBER, Women Artists, Work Tagged With: "I Can't I Won't I Will I Do", Artist Debra Disman, Artist interview, Arts online magazine, CanvasRebel, CanvasRebel: Meet Debra Disman, City of Glendale, Debra Disman, Gene Ogami, Glendale, Glendale Arts and Culture, Glendale Central Library, Hidden gem, Los Angeles Artists, Online artist interview, Online Magazine, recognition, ReflectSpace, Solo Show

Artist Residency Culminating Event at the West Valley Regional Branch Library!

July 2, 2023 By Debra Disman


Celebrating our year long  “We Write the Book” artist residency at the West Valley Regional Branch Library, supported by The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs!

Enjoy the ride. We did!

       

https://debradisman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/CULMINATION_WVRBL_2022-23.mp4

Filed Under: Artist in Residence, Artists' Books, Presentations, Student Work, Teaching Artist Tagged With: Artist Residency, Artist Residency Culmination, Asian American, Book, Book as Art, Book Structures, BOOKBINDING, Bookmaking, Books made by Hand, Butterfly, Community Artmaking, COMMUNITY BOOKMAKING, Creating travel journals, Culmination, DCA LA, DCA-funded artist residency, Handmade Books, Intergenerational Arts workshops, Kevin Hasely, LAPL, Librarians, Los Angeles Public Library, Making Books Together, mixed media books, Self-expression, Sewn Books, signature books, Summer, Summer reading, Summer travel, The Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Los Angeles, Travel, Travel Journal, West Valley Regional Branch Library

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