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Debra Disman

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“We Write The Book” Single Signature Exposed Spine Bookmaking Workshop at the Northridge Library!

April 21, 2025 By Debra Disman

I was thrilled to lead an “Single Signature with Exposed Spine” bookmaking workshop at the Northridge Branch Library on April 19th, 2025, in honor of National Poetry Month and upcoming EARTH DAY!

    


I am an artist-in-residence at the Northridge Branch Library, conducting bookmaking workshops and events for the local community and library patronage from February through May, 2025, on selected Wednesday afternoons, 3:30-5:00PM, and Saturdays 11:00am – 12:30PM
Please note date change, May 21st Saturday program is now May 14th!
Same time and place!

Filed Under: Artist in Residence, Artists' Books, BOOKS, LIBRARIES, Presentations, Teaching Artist, TEXTILE/FIBER, Textiles/Fiber/Cloth, Venues, Work Tagged With: art-making workshops for families, Artist Residency, Book, Book as Art, Book Structures, BOOKBINDING, Bookmaking, Books made by Hand, Community, Community Artmaking, COMMUNITY BOOKMAKING, DCA LA, DCA-funded artist residency, Exposed Spine, Families Making Books, Family Bookmaking, Gathering of folded pages, Handmade Books, Intergenerational Arts workshops, LAPL, Librarians, Los Angeles Public Library, Making Books Together, mixed media books, National Poetry Month, NEAR Residency, Neighborhood Engagement Artist Residency, Northridge, Northridge Branch Library, PAMPHLET STITCH, running stitch, Self-expression, Sewn bindings, SIGNATURE, SINGLE SIGNATURE, Single Signature bookmaking, The Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Los Angeles, THE LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM

“We Write The Book” Sidebound Bookmaking Workshop at the Northridge Library!

April 21, 2025 By Debra Disman

I was thrilled to lead an “Sidebound” bookmaking workshop at the Northridge Branch Library on April 16th, 2025, in honor of National Poetry Month and upcoming EARTH DAY!

 


I am an artist-in-residence at the Northridge Branch Library, conducting bookmaking workshops and events for the local community and library patronage from February through May, 2025, on selected Wednesday afternoons, 3:30-5:00PM, and Saturdays 11:00am – 12:30PM
Please note date change, May 21st Saturday program is now May 14th! Same time and place!

Filed Under: Artist in Residence, Artists' Books, LIBRARIES, Presentations, Student Work, Teaching Artist, TEXTILE/FIBER, Textiles/Fiber/Cloth, Venues, Work Tagged With: art-making workshops for families, Artist Residency, Book, Book as Art, Book Structures, BOOKBINDING, Bookmaking, Books made by Hand, Community, Community Artmaking, COMMUNITY BOOKMAKING, DCA LA, DCA-funded artist residency, Families Making Books, Family Bookmaking, Flower Fold Book, Handmade Books, Intergenerational Arts workshops, LAPL, Librarians, Los Angeles Public Library, Making Books Together, mixed media books, National Poetry Month, NEAR Residency, Neighborhood Engagement Artist Residency, Northridge, Northridge Branch Library, Self-expression, Sewn bindings, sidebound book, sidebound book structure, Sidebound Books, sidestab binding, The Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Los Angeles, THE LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM

Intersection: where art and community meet with Debra Disman!

March 31, 2025 By Debra Disman

Intersection: where art and community meet with Debra Disman

April 1 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

FREE!

Intersection: where art and community meet with Debra Disman
Tuesday, April 1st | 5PM – 7PM
18th Street Arts Center
1639 18th Street. Santa Monica, CA 90404

Free + Open to the Public

Formally Happy Hours and Potlucks, these gatherings are dedicated to gathering our community around good food, conversation, and art. Please stop by for a bite and chat with our community and spotlight artist: Debra Disman.

Please join us to create & learn, express & enjoy together! Debra Disman will lead us through the making of fun and fantastic “Flag Books”, made of an accordion-folded spine and intimate flag pages onto which you can inscribe your own text, found or otherwise, imagery or any combination of these to tell your own story of the present moment as you are experiencing it. All materials will be provided but if you would like, please bring ephemera and memorabilia to personalize to your book.

 

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Presentations, Student Work, TEXTILE/FIBER, Textiles/Fiber/Cloth, Venues, Work Tagged With: "Make Your Own Books!", 18th Street Arts Center, Artmaking, Bookmaking, Community, COMMUNITY BOOKMAKING, Fantastic Flag Books, Flag Book, FLAG BOOKMAKING, flag bookmaking program, Flag Books, Flag Books and Found Writing, Happy Hour Event Tags: happy hour, Intersection, Intersection: where art and community meet with Debra Disman, Making Art Together, spotlight artist

PAPER Is In The Air…

February 18, 2025 By Debra Disman

The proverbial scent of paper is in the air!

I am delighted to be showing in two exhibitions focussed on PAPER in the months of February and March.

First up is the exhibition “PAPER” is presented online February 13, 2025 – March 13, 2025 by Site: Brooklyn

SEE THE SHOW HERE!

The 20th century marked the peak, and subsequent decline, of paper’s dominance over everyday life. “Paperwork” is still a near-universal experience, but like everything else, has taken a more-and-more virtual form. Paper, unlike most artistic mediums, is a substrate first and artistic medium second. Created from textile waste, paper is woven very deeply into the fabric of modern life. It can be equally associated with the transformation of work, easy replication, industriousness, disposability, creativity, and experimentation. Since its invention, these qualities have encouraged artists to prepare, design, and experiment on paper. Ironically, it was in the later part of the 20th century when artists like Dorothea Rockburne. Ed Ruscha, and Robert Rauschenberg took the investigations of the Cubists into papier collé and developed paper as both a physical object, and a subject. Site:Brooklyn is looking for works that continue and expand this tradition.

Exhibition Juror, Rachel Gladfelter  is the Director at Pace Paper. Previously, she was the gallery director for the Pace Prints NYC, a fine art print gallery specializing in original, limited-edition prints in collaboration with printmaking affiliates, Pace Editions and Pace Paper. Before that, Gadfelter held the position of Studio Director for Dieu Donne Paper.

I am deighted to show “Excavation of the Interior”, 2021, 12 x 28 x 12.5″, wood, paper, cloth, hemp cord, linen thread

Curatorial Statement: Rachel Gladfelter
Paper is an exhibition that brings together 42 artists working within this versatile medium.  Ranging from intimate collaged ink drawings like Christopher Miller’s Dog Sitting to Svetlana Grigoryeva’s earthy and tactile Breathing of Bark, paper promotes ideas as expansive as its material capability.

Ancient and versatile, paper has historically acted as a carrier, allowing the sharing of ideas, image and word.  With the advent of exploratory papermaking studios and residency spaces in the mid to late 20th century, artists began creating work within the medium itself, bringing new energy and innovation.  Paper’s potential is infinite as both substrate and essential substance.  

As a substrate, it is luring.  To quote Ellsworth Kelly, “When I see a white piece of paper, I feel I’ve got to draw.  And drawing, for me, is the beginning of everything.”  As a medium in and of itself, the ability to create new ideas from the raw materials of fiber and water has a romantic tactility.  Paper can be additive: poured, painted and brushed.  It can be constructed into a new form.  It can be a lightweight shell of an object, or it can be a solidly cast shape.  It can be wrapped around an armature, and it can be cut, torn or shredded.  Paper can be painted on, photographed, crumpled up, eaten, heard, touched, twisted, drawn on, printed on and carried in protest.  It is fragile yet resilient.  It transports history, stories and secrets.  It moves as easily in a systematic mail system as in the unpredictable wind.  Paper is responsive.  It is historical and present, bringing life and purpose to ideas.  Paper is an analogue in a digital age.   The works in Paper share the significance of this medium’s intimacy and clear purpose in its utilization; albeit shown in a digital exhibition. The artists exhibited create works where paper is intrinsic to their ideas around themes of pattern, nature, politics, structure, and memory.  Each wall highlights one of these motifs. – Rachel Gladfelter

Site:Brooklyn Gallery is dedicated to exhibiting the current practice of contemporary artists. We are taking Site:Brooklyn online with a new series of interactive exhibitions. Our goal remains the same, to connect artists with an expert and diverse set of jurors through the open call format. Our new program focuses on online open call exhibitions, selected by a cast of new jurors, solo artist features, and spotlights.

SEE THE “PAPER” SHOW HERE!

In March I will be showing in the exhibition CUT/FOLD/PRESS, presented at Craft Alliance, and juried by the renowned Buzz Spector. More to come on this in another post!

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Exhibitions, Presentations, TEXTILE/FIBER, Textiles/Fiber/Cloth, Venues, Work Tagged With: ARTIST BOOKS, Brooklyn, Buzz Spector, craft alliance, Cut/Fold/Paste, Dieu Donne Paper, Group Exhibition, New York City, NY, NYC, Online Show, Pace, Pace Editions, Pace paper, Pace Prints, Pace Prints NYC, Paper, Paper in artowrks, paper show, Rachel Gladfelter, Site: Brooklyn, Site: Brooklyn Gallery, Works on and of paper, Works on paper

Mazur Museum showcases Contemporary Artists Throughout the US

January 30, 2025 By Debra Disman

I am thrilled to participate in “The 62nd Annual Juried Competition” at The Mazur Museum of Art!

The Masur Museum of Art’s Annual Juried Competition showcases contemporary artists throughout the United States of America working in any medium. First started in 1964, the Annual Juried Competition is the Masur Museum’s longest-running tradition and one of its best-reviewed exhibitions each year. This year, 1400  artworks were submitted by artists all over the nation, in all styles and media.

Exhibition on view Feb 20 – May 3, 2025
Public Reception: January 20, 2025 5:30 – 7:30 PM

I am honored to show: “The Body Politic: Black and Gold”


2024, 8.5 x 23 x 7″, bk board, paint, canvas, metal leaf, lace, cord, netting, trim, beads

About the Juror
Annemarie Sawkins, PhD, is a Milwaukee-based independent curator, who has curated several exhibitions for the Masur Museum of Art including Kogyo: Japanese Woodblock Prints (2022), Treasures of Art Nouveau (2019) and Afghan War Rugs: The Modern Art of Central Asia (2018). Her more recent projects include Profound Prints: Art by Exceptional Women at the Hilliard Art Museum and A Creative Place at the Trout Museum of Art. From 1999 to 2012, she was a curator at the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University. A frequent juror and portfolio reviewer, Annemarie Sawkins has a MA and PhD in Art/Architectural History from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Sponsored by The Northeast Louisiana Arts Council

62nd Annual Juried Competition – Public Reception
5:30 – 7:30 PM
Juror’s talk and awards: 6:30 PM
Receptions at the Masur Museum of Art are free and open to the public. Light food and refreshments are served and ID for alcoholic beverages is required. Parking at the museum is limited so carpooling is suggested.

 

Filed Under: Exhibitions, New Work, TEXTILE/FIBER, Textiles/Fiber/Cloth, Venues, Work Tagged With: 62nd Annual Juried Exhibition, American Artists, Annemarie Sawkins, annual  group show, ARTIST'S BOOKS, Black and Gold, Book, Book Artist, Contemporary Artists, Fiber, Fiber Artist, Group Exhibition, Handmade Books, Juried Show, Mazur, Mazur Museum, Northeast Louisiana Arts Council, Sculptural Books, Textile Artist, Textiles, The Body Politic, US based artists

Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover

January 29, 2025 By Debra Disman

I am thrilled to participate in “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover” at the the Cultural Center of Cape Cod

February 3 @ 12:00 pm – March 1 @ 5:00 pm
Please join us for the opening reception  5-7PM February 7, 2025 at the
Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Inc. 307 Old Main Street South Yarmouth, MA 02664

“Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover“, is an evocative visual art exhibition designed to challenge our perceptions and invite us to look beyond the superficial. This engaging showcase, presented at the Cultural Center, features a variety of artists who use unexpected materials, surprising forms, and innovative techniques to question the initial impressions and judgments we often make.

Each piece in the collection serves as a metaphor for the complexity of identity and the hidden depths beneath external appearances. By juxtaposing the seen with the unseen, this exhibition encourages viewers to reconsider how they interpret not only art but each other in everyday life

Join us from February 3 – March 1, 2025, for a transformative journey that redefines what it means to truly ‘see.’

I am thrilled to show:
Red Notebook (Here’s To The Red, White and Blue), 8.5 x 12.5 x 6.5″, placemat, linen thread, hemp cord, cloth, wood

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, TEXTILE/FIBER, Textiles/Fiber/Cloth, Venues, Work Tagged With: Book, Cape Cod, Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Everyday Life, external appearances, Group Exhibition, Group Show, hidden depths, IDENTITY, innovative techniques, Juried Exhibition, Molly Demeulenaere, surprising forms, unexpected materials, Unseen, Yarmouth

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