Debra Disman

Artist

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18th Street Arts Center

CONCURRENCIES: Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: The Works

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On June 25th, 2022 I held an open studio to share works created for my 2021-22 Santa Monica Artist Project Fellowship:

Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: Genius, Trauma and the Invention of New Forms of Visual Art in Response to the Holocaust

Employing research, artistic production, public engagement, the project investigates, compares and links the lives and the groundbreaking work of Jewish women artists Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse on the basis of their shared experience of trauma and loss through the Jewish Holocaust, the remarkably similar intimate traumas of their families (both lost their mothers to suicide), their invention of new forms of visual art through which I posit they respond to and attempt to cope with these traumas,  their early deaths, and the emotional involvement of each with a charismatic and powerful male artist who proved to be influential, even pivotal in the development of their work and artistic/creative breakthroughs.

Themes of the project include being a woman artist, being a Jewish women artist, being an artist during or affected by a profoundly turbulent time in history, the relationship between internal and external turbulence and the creative act and the transformative power of the creative process:  the triumph of the imagination as opposed to the triumph of the will.

On a broader scale, the project examines, through these two geniuses, ways in which the creative process can transform traumatic pasts, and how trauma can elicit the creation of new forms, voices and materials that outlast their makers and continue to reverberate throughout the ages, inspiring posterity.

As part of my Fellowship project commitment, I created a series of works responding to these artists: their oeuvre, their lives, their concurrencies, some of which I share here: (All images by Steve Hankins Photography)

Working title: “Concurrencies I“, 2022, repurposed denim, linen thread, gold thread, hemp cord, varnish


Working title: “Concurrencies II“, begun, 2022 (unfinished), repurposed denim, linen thread, gold thread, varnish , to be developed


Working title, “Finally“, 2022, canvas, burlap, acrylic paint, hemp cord


Working title, “Finally“, 2022, canvas, burlap, acrylic paint, hemp cord, (details)


“I Can’t I Won’t I will I Do“, 2022, repurposed cotton table runner, hemp cord, acrylic paint


“It’s Not Black and White“, 2021, Bookboard, mulberry paper, repurposed typewriter tape, canvas, hemp cord, (exterior)


“It’s Not Black and White“, 2021, Bookboard, mulberry paper, repurposed typewriter tape, canvas, hemp cord, (exterior/interior)


“Forest Through The Trees“, 2021, bookboard, hemp cord, watercolor paper, acrylic paint, wood, canvas, repurposed typewriter tape, lace, (exterior)


“Forest Through The Trees“, 2021, bookboard, hemp cord, watercolor paper, acrylic paint, wood, canvas, repurposed typewriter tape, lace, (detail)


Working title: “Charlotte Salomon-Eva Hesse: Concurrencies“, 2022, repurposed family album, burlap, linen thread, collage/paper,  (exterior)

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.

“Unfolding Possibilities” for RECOVERY JUSTICE: BEING WELL

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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’s Arts 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” is on view  in the Recovery Justice: Being Well exhibition, at 18th Street Art Center‘s Airport Campus Gallery, through September 10, 2021.

“Unfolding Possibilities”: The Video

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Sharing the video,
“Debra Disman: Unfolding Possibilities”

Jeny Amaya – filmmaker

18th Street Arts Center– host

Why We Rise: supporter

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’s Arts Learning Lab @ Home: called: Bookmaking with Self-Compassion.

 

See the “Bookmaking with Self-Compassion 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.  How to put it all together?

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”). 

Jeny Amaya of 18th Street Arts Center created a video sharing about the workshop and the making of “Unfolding Possibilities” and it was screened at
LEFT/RIGHT/HERE: An Outdoor Art Experience
a one-night only interactive outdoor and indoor art experience as part of the exhibition Recovery Justice: Being Well. 
on
July 10, 2021 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm.

View the film!
“Debra Disman: Unfolding Possibilities”

Thank you, Jeny Amaya, 18th Street Arts Center, and Why We Rise LA for the opportunity to participate in all of these activities, and in collaboration with you and the community at-large, make a collective contribution.

“Unfolding Possibilities”: The Screening

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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’s Arts 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.  How to put it all together?

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”). 

Jeny Amaya of 18th Street Arts Center created a video sharing about the workshop and the making of “Unfolding Possibilities” and it was screened at
LEFT/RIGHT/HERE: An Outdoor Art Experience
a one-night only interactive outdoor and indoor art experience as part of the exhibition Recovery Justice: Being Well. 
on
July 10, 2021 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm.

Here are some stills from that screening. Such a wonderful experience!


Screened on the side of the Santa Monica Airport Hanger housing the 18th Street Art Center’s Airport Campus, the video came to life as the skies darkened. “Unfolding Possibilities” the artists’ book, was also on view.


A multitude of threads were used to stitch the words into the book.


Jeny did a beautiful job of documenting the process of creating the book,


highlighting the idea of possibility,


and capturing how the flower fold book structure was created.


She showed my 18th Street Arts Center studio,


and the book as a whole, possibilities unfolding.

Always, Possibilities.

Watch the video in full!