Teaching Artist

Felt, Fabric, Feathers, FUN: Celebrating Women Artists at the Will and Ariel Durant Branch Library

March 27, 2019 By Debra Disman

I was thrilled to lead an artmaking program at the Will and Ariel Durant Branch Library of the Los Angeles Public Library System to celebrate Women’s History Month, specifically Women Artists!

Inspired by the artist Faith Ringgold’s “Story Quilts”, participants including children, adults and families, used a glorious melange of soft materials (well, there were some buttons…) to create their own textile hangings, tapestries of sorts, learning about five very special women artists in the process.

Faith Ringgold of New York City, Yayoi Kusama of Japan, Liza Lou of Los Angeles, Frida Kahlo of Mexico, and Georgia O’Keeffe of New Mexico were presented and discussed, and participants incorporated images of the artists and their work into their projects. The creative juxtaposition of materials and images was thrilling…and inspiring.

Children’s Librarian Aida got into the act with Georgia O’Keeffe, one of her favorite artists.

Feathers are fun!

This maker ensconced herself at one end of the room and focussed intensively on the materials.

Devotion to detail…

A glorious melange of felt, feathers, canvas and cloth…

Adding buttons.

Laying out the components in an orderly fashion…

Creating borders framing the work.

This Mom brings her two daughters to the program every week and enjoys creating with them. Talented…

She created a butterfly!

He created the five elements!

Serious little makers having fun. Did this little princess create her castle in her piece?

Wearable art!

Joy.

Getting Lit: Making Matchbox Books at the Granada Hills Public Library

March 22, 2019 By Debra Disman

It has been exciting to lead programs at the Granada Hills Branch Library of the LAPL, as part of my Artist Residency there: “We Write the Book“, supported by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

In honor of Women’s History Month, I led a workshop on how to create mini “matchbox books”. Open to the whole community, participants included families, seniors, children, adults and youth. Participants used actual matchboxes as the container or “cover of their books, and folded accordion pages to place inside them. I had appropriately-sized images of the work of five amazing women artists, who the makers learned about, and used in and on their pieces.

Faith Ringgold of New York City, Yayoi Kusama of Japan, Liza Lou of Los Angeles, Frida Kahlo of Mexico, and Georgia O’Keeffe of New Mexico were featured, nd participants incorporated images of their work and the artists themselves into their projects, hopefully learning about them and being inspired in the process

Families work together.

Honored members of the Friends of the Library joined us.

Mother and daughter work side by side.

I couldn’t agree more!

Purple and pink…perennial favorites.

Kusama’s polka dots rule….

Kahlo graces the cover…

Our fearless, peerless teen librarian, Kristin Peers, joins the fun!

It is such an honor to serve this community as Artist in Residence, and get to know the families and individuals who frequent the Branch, as well as its awesome Staff.

Gratitudes!

The Work of Our Hands: Hand Building with Clay 4

March 11, 2019 By Debra Disman

Hand Building with Clay class at Will Rogers School with the CREST Enrichment program has been a joy to teach.

Students learned pinch, coil and slab techniques, creating functional and fanciful items, and enjoying plenty of time to create their own personal visions after completing each class project.

After learning slab (flattening) technique, students created masks from slabs shaped over newspaper armatures/supports.

Both the Kindergarten and grades 1-5 classes let their inventiveness loose!

Employing the heart shape in different ways when class fell on February 14th!

Combining use of coils with use of slab technique.

Cutting out and incising (etching lines and texture into the clay) yields expressive results.

This young maker used a pencil to twist these star shapes into his mask. Big smile!

Cut out eyes, added teeth incising texture and puncturing the clay’s surface to create small round shapes enhance this piece.

This very talented young artist wanted to create Harry Potter in clay…

She succeeded. Her use of acrylic paint pulled the whole piece together into a stunner.

BRAVO to All Our Students!

The Work of Our Hands: Hand Building with Clay 3

March 7, 2019 By Debra Disman

Hand Building with Clay class at Will Rogers Elementary School with the CREST Enrichment program has been a joy to teach.

Here behold first – fifth grade students get their hands in the “earth”…

The Work of Our Hands: Hand Building with Clay 2

February 27, 2019 By Debra Disman

Hand Building with Clay class at Will Rogers Elementary School with the CREST Enrichment program has been a joy to teach.

Below behold students aged 5-6 get their hands in the “earth”.

We had class on Valentine’s Day, which proved to be an inspiration.

From the heart.

The Work of Our Hands: Hand Building with Clay 1

February 24, 2019 By Debra Disman

Creating masks in our Hand Building with Clay class at McKinley Elementary after school with the CREST Enrichment program has been a joy. With majority boys in the class, the tempo had to be high energy.

Students learned how to “pound out” slabs (flat) pieces of clay the week before, then created “armatures” (support structures) of newspaper, over which they stretched their slabs, so that their masks would be three dimensional.

It was exciting to watch the students develop their mask characters, inevitably thinking in terms of story…inspired by characters from film, television, and books, but always their own. Students used coil, scoring, incising and even pinch pot techniques to create their mask characters.

Creating detail.