Debra Disman

Artist

  •

Art Classes

BOYS MAKING BOOKS!

By

I was thrilled to teach “Make Your Own Books” through the City of Santa Monica’s CREST Enrichment program during January and February 2023!
I had a fantastic class of all boys who worked together beautifully, learned enthusiastically, and displayed great creativity and passion for their book projects!

Here is what one Mom said of her son’s experience with bookmaking:

“Owen is so sad he will be missing the last class this week as we are out of town.   I wanted to share how much this class has changed Owen.  He is obsessed with making books now and holds his own comic book club…daily…with his Dad and I. He carries them everywhere.  He shows everyone.”

This was thrilling for me to hear…it is what a teaching artist lives for!

Below are they boys in action during our after-school program:

     

The Work of Our Hands: Hand Building with Clay 4

By

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

By

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

By

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

By

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.

 


Two faces, in one?


Creating texture!


Inspired by the zombie craze.


Our one young girl in class that day created…a self-portrait?


Creative use of coils…


Figuring it out…


A very coherent expression.


Tattoo?


What is going on here? Perhaps this young maker is working out his feelings through creating.

It would not be the first time…

All hail, the healing powers of Art.

Arts Instructor at the Marlborough Summer School

By

Arts Instructor at the Marlborough Summer School

I will be teaching a range of classes for the Marlborough Summer School this summer, including “Creating Unique Handmade Books”, “Art and Writing”, “Building A World”, “Red Yellow Blue” (all about color!), “Fairy Tales” (fanciful bookmaking for young children), and “Make Your Own Books”.

This is an intensive, daily, five week program, which draws students from all over Los Angeles County. Follow the link to find out more!