Debra Disman

Artist

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Work

NEW WORK in 2021: “Forest Through The Trees”

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I was happy to finally be able to have Elon Schoenholz Photography in to photograph works completed during 2021… fast away the old year passes…

Here I share “Forest through The Trees“, 15 x 42 x 12”, made of book board, canvas, hemp cord, ribbon, typewriter ribbon, acrylic paint, wood.
It is part of a monochrome series in black, through the colors of “black” are infinite, and change with light, material, juxtaposition, and how the viewer engages with the piece.

Comprised of two accordion-folded “spines”, the “book”, becomes a “box”, with a “door” that opens, expandable “walls”, and  painted canvas “pages” held up precariously with wooden dowels. The piece can be presented and contemplated in numerous ways, and begs a tactile connection, through all of us working in book, and perhaps sculptural forms in general grapple with how to do this.  How to have viewers engage with the work, participate in it, without having it worn away over time in the process…

We are seekers.
The Journey continues.

Happy New Year.

(exterior, closed)

(exterior, ajar)

(interior/exterior, open)

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

2021 INTERNATIONAL ART OF THE BOOK: In Living Color

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THE 2021 ART OF THE BOOK & PAPER SCULPTURE!


“In 2011, we held the first Art of the Book exhibit in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Rochester Public Library. At the time, we wanted to celebrate what has been at the core of libraries for centuries–the book. We marveled over the intricate interpretations of this humble format, and we were thrilled with the response to the exhibit from the community.”

“In subsequent years, the exhibit has grown to include entries from all over the world, featuring well-known artists for their exquisite work. We have built a reputation worldwide among book artists, and we are so pleased to see that reputation upheld.

Books continue to ensnare the imagination, both for their form and content. Artists manipulate those two components to create breathtaking, mind-bending works of art that tease and cajole people to consider the intricacies of paper, ink, words, and meaning.

In commemoration of the 10th Anniversary, we are adding Paper Sculpture as a new category. This new category will celebrate the extraordinary use of paper, in an art form that combines or shapes papers.”

View the CATALOGUE!

View the show!!

NEW WORK in 2021: Red Notebook (“Here’s To The Red, White and Blue”)

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I was happy to finally be able to have Elon Schoenholz Photography in to photographs works completed/created during 2021, which continues to race by.

Part of an ensemble, suite, or installation of works entitled, “Here’s To The Red, White and Blue”, Red Notebook is structured as a “traditional” codex, with covers that open and pages that turn.  Moderately, “red” (hence the “red” element of the “Red, White and Blue” theme-meme-trope?) it contains a great deal of black as well.
In the immortal words of  Mark Rothko, “There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend;  One day, the black will swallow the red.”

Made from a repurposed placemat, hemp cord, linen thread, canvas, and lace, it is 8.5″ high, 12.5″ when opened in full, and 6.5″ at greatest depth and opens left to right, from cover through pages to cover, bound together through a single signature.


The red and back play off each other in all their associations


Sewing, stitching, gluing, knotting, coiling, massing


Amassing, accumulation, the RED in


Up next.

LIMINAL: The Book

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I was thrilled to be included in  the exhibition LIMINAL, at Verum Ultimum Gallery in which artists were invited to explore the theme of liminality in any interpretation, media and form of visual art.

“Liminal is the space between. What significance does transition (or the “space between“) have in your work or your artistic voice? Does your work reflect the liminal aspects of our pandemic-impacted world and the adaptation to a post pandemic existence? Does your work represent and or challenge the threshold to a more equitable society? Or, perhaps it reflects a vehicle for expression through pure abstraction.” Curator Jennifer Gillia Cutshall

As with all Verum Ultimum’s calls for art, the curator never seeks to drive the work, the only hope is to unveil unique visions. All mediums and modes of expression have been welcomed from low brow, pop surrealism, realism, abstraction, and more. The term Liminal may be interpreted in many ways, and is not necessarily meant to be a literal elucidation.

Liminal is defined as
1. relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.
2. occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.

​One could argue that artists are conditioned to occupy the liminal state. And a successful studio is a space in flux, poised for adaptation (to projects, challenges, and materials). The focus of the artist is the creative process or the place between the 2 boundaries of “the beginning” and “the outcome or result.”

A gallery benefits from maintaining that liminal state, too (adaptation is a constant).

Verum Ultimum is celebrating it’s eighth year and this exhibition served to herald the artists unique vision…especially during these challenging times!

View the LIMINAL Exhibition

Read LIMINAL Artist Insights

Please see the LIMINAL Exhibition Book


Above: Curator and Verum Ultimum Gallery Founder, Jennifer Gillia Cutshall‘s LIMINAL exhibition statement.


Pictured above is my work in the show:   The Gates, (interior), 2019, 7.5 x 20 x 10.25”, mixed media/sculptural artists’ book.

View the Show!!!