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Debra Disman

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Change

Swinging the Pendulum

January 24, 2025 By Debra Disman

I am thrilled to be part of:

The 14th Annual International Juried Exhibition – PENDULUM

February 12 – March 8, 2025

READ THE PRESS RELEASE!

The A.D. Gallery at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke  presents an exhibition that shares varied  interpretations of the theme, Pendulum.
Gains/losses, highs/lows, submerge/emerge…our human experience swings on a pendulum. While we all aim for homeostasis, the moments the pendulum swings are often when we feel the most alive, when we are called to act or react. In the past 20 years, we have faced major political, social, environmental, and personal shifts. These shifts have presented us with obstacles, challenges as well as moments for reinvention and emergence. This show presents works that visualize a swing in the pendulum, a life altering moment, a shift in the trajectory. Juror: Emily Beck considered works from a broad range of interpretations of this theme.

I am pleased to show: It’s Not Black and White, 2021, 9 x 22 x 7.5″, book board, canvas, paper, typewriter ribbon, hemp cord

Emily Scott Beck is an interdisciplinary artist and professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Design at the University of Notre Dame. Her work manipulates and re-contextualizes aspects of our identity that are often hidden within the layers of human communication and interaction. Using video, animation, photography, sculpture, fibers, installation, and sound, she captures experiences of emotional vulnerability, unrehearsed performances, gender construction, systems of belief, and women’s labor and leadership. A focus on art as a powerful tool for visual communication and social change is a common thread between her studio practice and her teaching. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States, including the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC, the South Bend Museum of Art in South Bend, IN, Elisabet Ney Museum in Austin Texas, and Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL

The A.D. Gallery is sponsored by the Art Department of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Serving the university and local community, the gallery provides a venue for student and faculty work, as well as that of local, regional, national and international artists. The gallery helps fulfill the department’s goal of providing outstanding educational opportunities for its students by bringing quality visual arts to the university and the community at large.

In the 1970s the faculty recognized a need for a permanent exhibition space and converted a faculty lounge into a gallery, which served the department for 30 years. In September 2005, the department announced the opening of its new exhibition space. The new A.D. Gallery features approximately 960 square feet of exhibition space, an upper register with a skylight, and the ability to display large-format work.

READ THE PRESS RELEASE!

 

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Exhibitions, Presentations, TEXTILE/FIBER, Work Tagged With: A.D. Gallery, Art Department of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Change, Current Events, Emily Beck, Exhbitions, gains and losses, Group Show, highs and lows, International Juried Show, It's Not Black and White, Juried Show, losses, lows, Pembroke, Pendulum, Pendulum Swings

TRANSITION II

June 20, 2018 By Debra Disman

TRANSITION II

Transition, convergence, a sea change, a shift…whenever there is change, seismic or not, the axis of our lives seems to move, and maybe it does.

If we think about an axis….we can see how monumental it is when it changes, when changes causes it to move literally or figuratively. Causing us to change, or at least, compelling us to adapt.

ax·is

noun

  1. 1.
    an imaginary line about which a body rotates.
    “the earth revolves on its axis once every 24 hours”
  2. 2.

    MATHEMATICS

    a fixed reference line for the measurement of coordinates.

“the earth revolves on its axis once every 24 hours” gives us a sense of this.  When we think of change this way, even desirable change, even the change we seek, we can see how disorientating it can be. How disorientating it IS.

Thinking back to my last post, I see how I am trying to grapple with my own transition, moving away from forms that have been a mainstay for many years…past work,  site, blog, digital and professional identity, into something something that contains it all.

After nearly seven years in Los Angeles developing new work,

I currently work in the form of the book, in forms inspired by the book, and in new sculptural media of my own devising. Although the work remains tethered to loose definitions of the book as structure, it is moving progressively into other sculptural and conceptual realms where labor, repetition and a passion for the haptic become powerful motivators and themes….

I finally sat down, and updated all my social media platforms.  To change a “page” on Facebook is very complicated, so the moniker “ArtiFactory Studio” remains there… but the information, the essence, is finally updated, as well as on Linked In, Pinterest, and more. It was a relief, and kind of exhilarating to get it done. It was time.

It is interesting to think how we are not only constantly being “profiled”, we profile ourselves. We are willing participants in the continual construction of our identities.  I realized that though how we show up online is critical on one level, on another it isn’t at all…no-one…of the many many folks i interact with around work, ever questioned the disconnect between my social media profiles, and the streams which flowed from them..streams of information, of images, of posts designed to share what I encounter, what I think can be helpful, what I want others to see. It is a construct which should have truth at its center.

With any change, we bring everything with us, every experience, every moment, every breath.

Having worked in the realm of the built environment for many years I am fascinated by the parallels between books and buildings in terms of structure, meaning, utility, architecture and effect. Each creates public and private spaces where stories are “read” on many levels, often revealing more than their authors and makers ever intended. I try to create such places and spaces of inspiration, contemplation, realization and bafflement in my work and to instigate investigation, exploration and discovery in myself and others.

 

Filed Under: Work Tagged With: ArtiFactory Studio, Artissima - Blog of ArtiFactory Studio, Axis, Change, Debra Disman, DebraDisman.Com, Profile, Social Media, Transition

TRANSITION I

June 11, 2018 By Debra Disman

TRANSITION I

What a tangled web we weave…

Even when we don’t practice to deceive…

A ways back, I finally transitioned from my long-time blog, “Artissima – The Blog of ArtiFactory Studio, to my new blog at DebraDisman.com.

My last Artissima post announced this move, (for it is indeed a move…just as potent as a physical one), and I let go/discontinued/ceased to pay for my Custom Design on Artissima, knowing that I was moving on, forging ahead, going forward.

And I am…along with my work, my blog, my life. as we all (hopefully) are.  As we all (hopefully) do.
Putting in the requisite work, effort, perseverance and commitment.

Yet, a bit later, I suddenly wanted the Custom Design back, back on my “old” Artissima blog, enhancing, beautifying, communicating and transforming…it.

WordPress had changed their blog design structures and it wasn’t so easy. Somewhat bewildered…at my own emotions and attachments, as well as web protocols, I sought advice from my dear friend and designer, Dianna Jacobsen  of Jacobsen Design.

Dianna had designed both my sites, my Artissima blog, and all my support materials (“marketing collateral”).  She told me, of course, to let it go. Not necessarily to let the old site and blog go, they still live (and radiantly I must say…even after all this time) on the web… but to let go of holding onto the old Custom Design, and my attachment to making and keeping the site and blog (in my mind) absolutely perfect.

“The older sites don’t adapt that well to the current and constantly changing digital environment.” she said (I paraphrase). “Stop ruminating about it, and move on.” (I paraphrase, but you get the idea.)

I needed to hear that.

So much seemed to be changing, much of it changes I had initiated, instigated,  pixel by pixel, but some changes that I hadn’t, – that I definitely would NOT have chosen. All forming what feels like a massive transition, where everything in  the world seems to have gone off its axis, requiring fresh eyes, energy and attitude.

I know this is growth, but sometimes it is confusing, sometimes it is overwhelming, and sometimes it hurts.

But we keep moving along…moment by moment, one foot in from of the other.

“The Whole World is a Narrow Bridge. The Important Thing is Not To Fear.”

Thank you for helping the through the “narrows” this time Dianna!

 

Filed Under: New Work, Work Tagged With: Art Work, ArtiFactory Studio, Artissima - Blog of ArtiFactory Studio, Artist, ARTIST'S BOOKS, Change, DebraDisman.Com, Dianna Jacobsen, Jacobsen Design, Letting Go, Transition

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