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Debra Disman

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ARTIST'S BOOKS

EXPO 41 at B.J. Spokes Gallery

March 18, 2022 By Debra Disman

I am thrilled to be included in:


a virtual exhibition of the b.j. spoke gallery

The show was juried by Sewon Kang, Archivist at The Easton/Bourgeois Archive, formerly Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, who selected the work of 15 artists. I am honored to be included in this roster of stunning creative makers.

Artists and their selected works can be viewed below. Enjoy

David Acquistapace, Saint Louis, MO
Kat Alyst, Austin, TX
Neville Barbour, Silver Spring, MD
Matthew Barton, New Orleans, LA
Kimberlyn Bloise, Edinboro, PA
Stephen Delaney, Middleton, MA
Debra Disman, Los Angeles, CA
Eriko Kobayashi, Carbondale, IL
Anthony Adonis Lewis, Ashland, OR
Kambel Smith, Philadelphia, PA
Karen Theisen, Santa Fe, NM
Amy Usdin, Mendota Heights, MN
Jae Yun Yi, Seoul Korea
Dier Zhang, Brooklyn, NY
Foad Seyed Mohammadi, Gainesville FL

I am showing:
Excavation of the Interior, 2021, 12 x 28 x 12.5″, mixed media (wood, canvas, muslin, mulberry paper, hemp cord, linen thread, watercolor paper)

and
Forest Through The Trees, 2021, 15 x 42 x 12″, mixed media (book board, acrylic paint, hemp cord, wood, canvas, typewriter tape, lace, watercolor paper)

ARTIST STATEMENT                                              
 I work in the form of the book, in forms evoked by the book, and in multidimensional media of my own devising. Both as a solo practitioner and in the public sphere of community engagement I push the body and boundaries of the book into new media, materials and meanings to invite altered ways of viewing the world and how we inhabit it. Although much of the work continues to relate to loose definitions of the book as structure, it is moving into other sculptural and conceptual realms where devotion to material labor and a passion for the haptic become powerful motivators and themes. I am fascinated by the parallels between books and buildings in terms of architecture, meaning and utility. Each constructs public and private spaces where stories are “read” on many levels, often revealing more than their makers ever intended. My work seeks to offer places of contemplation, solace and bafflement, while instigating exploration, investigation and examination of what we think we know, and are.

.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ARTIST'S BOOKS, B.J. Spokes Gallery, Conceptual Art, Conceptual Artist, Contemporary Art, Contemporary Artist, EXPO 42, Fiber, Fiber Artist, Group Shows, Juried Shows, Los Angeles Contemporary Artist, Sculptural Books, Sculpture, Sewon Kang, Textile, Textile Artist, The Easton Foundation

EXHIBITIONISTA: 35th Annual McNeese National Works on Paper

February 28, 2022 By Debra Disman

I am honored to have two pieces in the 35th Annual McNeese National Works on Paper exhibition, juried by: Jennifer Dasal, creator and host of ArtCurious Podcast, a podcast about art history, and previously Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, North Carolina Museum of Art.

Listen to Jennifer Dasal’s talk HERE!

“Walk” through the show HERE!

I am showing “PRAIRIE”  

and

“BURNING BUSH”

View all the wonderful works in the show HERE!

Tagged With: :Burning Bush", 35th Annual McNeese National Works on Paper, ArtCurious Podcast, ARTIST'S BOOKS, Book, Book as Art, Group Shows, https://www.artcuriouspodcast.com/, Jennifer Dasal, Juried Exhbition, McNeese State University/Dept. of Visual Arts, Paper, Prairie, Rosemary Jesionowski, The Book As Art, Works on paper, Works using paper

ALL SHE MAKES…from the Magazine

February 24, 2022 By Debra Disman

I am thrilled to be featured in ALL SHE MAKES  Magazineand the ALL SHE MAKES Artist Directory!

The Magazine is a must-see/read for anyone interested in the work of female artists and the art world in general.

 Sviltana Martynjuk, founder of All SHE Makes champions Women Artists through this publication and organization/venture she has spearheaded.

The incredible Christina Massey of  WoArt and creator of the amazing and beloved WoArt Blog, also promoting and celebrating women artists, and an artist in her own right, curated the selection of artists featured in this WINTER Issue IV of ALL SHE MAKES.

I am aprreciative of  this opportunity to be featured alongside so many outstanding women artists!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: All She makes magazine, Art By Women, ARTIST'S BOOKS, Artists, Buy Women's Art, C Massey Art . WoArt Blog, Christina Massey, Curated Work, Magazine Vesature, New Work, Support Women Artists!, Sviltana Martynjuk, WoArt Blog, Women Artists, Women's Art, Womenj's Art magazine, Work Tagged With: All She Makes

NEW WORK in 2021: “Forest Through The Trees”

December 20, 2021 By Debra Disman

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)

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, BOOKS, New Work, Work Tagged With: 2021 Work, Accordion Fold, ARTIST'S BOOKS, Black, Books To Boxes, Boxes, Canvas, COLOR, Conceptual Works, Constructions, Contemporary Artist, Covers, Elon Schoenholz Photography, Fiber, HEMP CORD, Labor, Los Angles Artists, minimalist, Mixed media, Monochrome, New Work, Repetition, Sculpture, Spiral, Stitch, Stitching, Textiles, Three-dimensional works, Work

EXHIBITIONISTA: EXPO 41 at B.J. Spokes Gallery

December 20, 2021 By Debra Disman

I am thrilled to be included in:

EXPO 41, a virtual exhibition of the b.j. spoke gallery

Juror: Sewon Kang,  Archivist at The Easton/Bourgeois Archive in NYC. Formerly she served as Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Modern Art.

 The Opening Reception will be held on ZOOM – Saturday, March 5th at 7:00pm (EST).

To Attend, Please REGISTER HERE!

View the show HERE!

Tagged With: ARTIST'S BOOKS, B.J. Spokes Gallery, Conceptual Art, Conceptual Artist, Contemporary Art, Contemporary Artist, Contemporary Fiber artist, Contemporary Textile Artist, EXPO 42, Fiber, Fiber Art, Fiber Artist, Group Shows, Juried Shows, Los Angeles Contemporary Artist, Sculptural Books, Sculpture, Sewon Kang, Textile, Textile Art, Textile Artist, The Easton Foundation

Unfolding Possibilities: Something to Ponder for the New Year

December 15, 2021 By Debra Disman

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.

Filed Under: Artist in Residence, ARTISTS, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Exhibitions, New Work, Presentations, Teaching Artist, Work Tagged With: 18th Street Arts Center, 18th Street Arts Center (Airport Campus), 18th Street Arts Center Campus, 18th Street Arts Center exhbitions, Art in the time of pandemic, Artist Book, ARTIST'S BOOKS, Artists' Book/s, Arts Learning Lab, Awl, Bookmaking, Bookmaking With Self-COmpassion, Community Art Projects, Community Arts, Community Collaboration, Film, Flower Fold, Flower Fold Book, Flower Fold Structure, Folded Books, Frida Cano, Handmade Books, Left/Right/Here, Los Angeles Department of Mental Health, Making Books By Hand, Mulberry paper, Online Art Workshops, Pandemic, Pandemic Art projects, RECOVERY JUSTICE: Being Well, Respending to the Pandemic, Sara Delaiden, Screening, Unfolding Possibilities, Use Your Words, Video, We Rise, We Rise LA

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