Debra Disman

Artist

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Community Arts Workshop

Unfolding the Possibilities: Bookmaking with Self-Compassion 2

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I was honored to have led “Bookmaking with Self-Compassion” on
Saturday, May 15, 2021, a workshop which invited participants to:

“Make an artist book celebrating their own creative growth”.

This program was presented through 18th Street Art Center’s Arts Learning Lab, with support from the County of Los Angeles Department of Mental Health‘s campaign We Rise LA. WE RISE encourages wellbeing and healing through art, connection, community engagement and creative expression and takes/took place during May: Mental Health Awareness Month.  It is part of artist Sara Daleiden’s artist project  RECOVERY JUSTICE: BEING WELL. 

Participants discovered how to create the beautiful, fun and versatile Flower Fold book into which they could add wishes, hopes, prayers and dreams. This post celebrates our MATERIALS!

Participants received “art kits” containing origami papers, ribbon, railroad board, stickers, markers, and glue sticks.

The beautiful origami papers were folded into smaller shapes containing “hidden” folds…

then glued together to create a longer book that could be folded up into a square, unfolded into a sculptural shape,

or hung as a chain!

“Found” words and images were added to the “pages”, as well as stickers drawing, collage and more…

and a whole now expressive artwork was created!

Unfolding the Possibilities: Bookmaking with Self-Compassion 1

By

I was honored to have led “Bookmaking with Self-Compassion” on
Saturday, May 15, 2021, a workshop which invited participants to:

“Make an artist book celebrating their own creative growth”.

This program was presented through 18th Street Art Center’s Arts Learning Lab, with support from the County of Los Angeles Department of Mental Health‘s campaign We Rise LA. WE RISE encourages wellbeing and healing through art, connection, community engagement and creative expression and takes/took place during May: Mental Health Awareness Month.  It is part of artist Sara Daleiden’s artist project  RECOVERY JUSTICE: BEING WELL. 

Participants discovered how to create the beautiful, fun and versatile Flower Fold book into which they could add wishes, hopes, prayers and dreams.

These works could become a chain to hang in their homes,

give as a gift,

or remain  an individual document of self-expression

exploring what the pandemic has meant to  them,

while learning new skills and creating a unique expression of renewal and rebirth during the spring season.

Makers used origami Papers,  glue sticks, railroad board, cardstock, ribbon,  stickers and items
they found in their immediate environment to create their books.

The results were stunning…beautiful, expressive, evocative, and telling of the past year.

It is a joy to share these self-compassionate bookworks….

These works shall remain powerful and poignant

of a never to be forgotten experience, that lingers and informs our present moment.

Kudos to filmmaker and videographer Jeny Amaya for her stellar documentation.

CELEBRATING THE LEGACY OF SANTA MONICA BLACK COMMUNITY LEADER THELMA TERRY FOR WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

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IMAGE: The Terryettes Drill Team, formed by Mrs. Thelma Terry. Photo courtesy of the Quinn Research Center and The Terryettes.

Join us for a unique celebration, and community art project from noon to 1PM
CELEBRATING
Thelma Terry: Athlete, Educator, and Community Leader
A Women’s History Month Celebration
Saturday, March 7, 2020 | 10 AM – 1 PM
Virginia Avenue Park, Thelma Terry Building
2200 Virginia Ave, Santa Monica

“In observance of Women’s History Month, Virginia Avenue Park, 18th Street Arts Center, and the Quinn Research Center are teaming up to celebrate the life and work of Thelma Terry, a community leader with a lasting legacy around teen recreation, athletics, and arts education in the Pico Neighborhood of Santa Monica. Through her life’s work, Thelma Terry touched so many in the community, but has very little presence online or in the history books. Through the efforts of Quinn Research Center, researcher Sabrina Fields, Virginia Avenue Park, and 18th Street Arts Center, Terry will finally have a Wikipedia page that matches her profound influence in the community. The Quinn Research Center provided photos and historical information on Thelma Terry from their archives for this page, and 18th Street Arts Center was able to provide some first-hand oral history accounts from their culturemapping90404.org project. Through art-making, sharing stories, local history presentations, food, and more, the community will celebrate Thelma Terry’s legacy at the Thelma Terry Center on Saturday March 7, 2020 from 10am-1pm.

Nestled in Santa Monica’s Pico neighborhood, the Thelma Terry building is a recreation facility right in the heart of Virginia Avenue Park. The building is used primarily for community gathering activities: everything from baile folklorico rehearsals to rent control information sessions. Although the essence of these activities are in line with the legacy of Thelma Terry, only a few know about her influence in the Westside, specifically in Venice and Santa Monica.

The event on March 7th will feature a community art-making activity with Debra Disman, a presentation from Art+Feminism’s West Coast rep Stacey Allan, memories of Mrs. Terry from her contemporaries and students, and a call for more Santa Monicans to get involved in future Wikipedia-thons to record and write the histories of underrecognized women leaders of color in this community. For information or to get involved in a future Santa Monica-focused Wikipedia-thon, please email sbyank@18thstreet.org.”

Read FULL Press Release!

 

 

 

 

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Making Books, Making Community at the Brentwood Art Center!

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Teaching community workshop in June on Flag Books and Found Text at the Brentwood Art Center was pure joy!


“Fun with Flag (pages)” was had by all.


Adults and children alike created marvelous flag book creations and had a blast in the process!


Participants learned to fold an accordion spine, add covers, and attach the flag pages on alternating sides of the spine to create a pattern that changed as the book was opened.


After the flag book was “built” (books and buildings have a lot in common…but that is a subject for another post…)


the real (well, that depends on your definition) fun began…filling, embellishing and developing the book!


Participants used images and text from magazines,


expressing their interests, thoughts, and ideas…


choosing what they wanted to express


with the materials at hand.


Some chose to draw by hand.


Some laid forth their content using repeated elements, like a graphic designer.


Others asked questions.


And some put it all together thematically.

All in all, a most remarkable experience.
Bravo!

 

In Resonant Residence (13)

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In Resonant Residence (13)

I formally began Studio Residency at the Camera Obscura Art Lab

in Santa Monica Wednesday January 10th, and completed it Saturday, April 21, 2018.  I shared the sunlit space, located within a beautiful Mid-century building overlooking Palisades Park, Santa Monica Beach and the blue Pacific with textile artist and fellow Studio Artist-in-Residence Huong Nguyen.
“About the Art Lab and Camera Obscura

1450 Exterior
Vintage Camera Obscura
 
 
 
 
Step inside the Camera Obscura Art Lab and you’ll find a welcoming space with fantastic views of Santa Monica Bay and the Pier. The Camera is located in a midcentury time capsule in Palisades Park between Broadway and Santa Monica Blvd on what was once the site of the Pacific Electric Railway’s North Beach Station. Designed by noted architect Weldon J. Fulton (who’s work can be found around town including the classic Camera Obscura sign and font, the Montana and Fairview branch libraries, and the former Zucky’s building on Wilshire Blvd), the building’s exterior features walls clad in chunky Palos Verdes stone, glass walls, sloping roofs, and projecting canopies and rafter beams. It was donated to the City of Santa Monica by Marcellus Joslyn in 1955.”

The huge studio windows look out on palms, walkways and a huge assortment of passers by, strollers, park wanderers and beach combers. The Studio is a magical place to work.

My twelfth workshop, March 24 2018: Double Flower Fold Book had participants folding forms and attaching them into a chain that folded up into a book that could nestle in your hand. But..when it opened…well, you can see what another name for this structure is “Exploding Book”!


The all-important process of choosing materials!


Folding repeating forms,


and slipping one into the next to create a chain.


Then come the covers…


and their content.


A line-up of family, working together, but on their own things.


Opening up to color.


Her own thing; a little “suit coat’ charmer that opens up into something deeper.


Cool colors, taking her cue form the sea and sky outside?


Development and embellishment and


delight…

It is the journey. I am so glad to have taken it with them, and You.

In Resonant Residence (12)

By

In Resonant Residence (12)

I formally began Studio Residency at the Camera Obscura Art Lab

in Santa Monica Wednesday January 10th, and completed it Saturday, April 21, 2018.  I shared the sunlit space, located within a beautiful Mid-century building overlooking Palisades Park, Santa Monica Beach and the blue Pacific with textile artist and fellow Studio Artist-in-Residence Huong Nguyen.
“About the Art Lab and Camera Obscura

1450 Exterior
Vintage Camera Obscura
 
 
 
 
Step inside the Camera Obscura Art Lab and you’ll find a welcoming space with fantastic views of Santa Monica Bay and the Pier. The Camera is located in a midcentury time capsule in Palisades Park between Broadway and Santa Monica Blvd on what was once the site of the Pacific Electric Railway’s North Beach Station. Designed by noted architect Weldon J. Fulton (who’s work can be found around town including the classic Camera Obscura sign and font, the Montana and Fairview branch libraries, and the former Zucky’s building on Wilshire Blvd), the building’s exterior features walls clad in chunky Palos Verdes stone, glass walls, sloping roofs, and projecting canopies and rafter beams. It was donated to the City of Santa Monica by Marcellus Joslyn in 1955.”

The huge studio windows look out on palms, walkways and a huge assortment of passers by, strollers, park wanderers and beach combers. The Studio is a magical place to work.

My 14th Workshop  April 21, 2018: “Jam out on the Big Beach Book with Debra Disman”   was a meaningful round-up of Residency activities, both workshops and magical making time in the glass-walled Studio…working on The Big Beach Book…

Before “residing” at 1450…The Beach Book was “The Sheltering Book”…and had nothing on it’s pages save color, texture and borders.

The community turned out, and dove into the project, adding paint, stamping, stenciling, collage, printing, altered book pages, maps, beach glass and more to the Book’s surfaces.

The original diamonds were enhanced by the addition of blue and green beach glass, and a tiny scrap from my studio-mate Huong‘s Shibori on Paper workshop.

During our “New Works” show, visitors used paint pens to create colorful works right on the paper-covered tables.  I cut these out, and added them to the Book.

Paint color samples, salvaged from my life as an architectural color consultant, proved to be a fun addition.

The sun stencil was perfect for our Beach theme…and was used in different ways on the Book.

A bold young maker painted the big flower onto one of The Book’s surfaces, and a stenciled sun was layered over it.

This young maker was headed back to the Bay Area with her family, and they stopped at the Camera Obscura on a whim.  happily, they investigated the Art lab, and joined us in adding to The Big Beach Book.

A fitting message. So glad you stopped by Nikki!

Traversing the back cover of The Book.

Sunhat, shells, funky glasses…the accoutrements of the Beach.

Adding to the back cover…

Participants used the fish stencils to great advantage, and used The Book as a place to share thoughts, wishes, ideas and dreams.

Surprise flowers from family…golden!

Stenciled and collaged fish swim in schools and circles. participants created bubbles using a the top of a jar to print acrylic paint with, and sea flora using translucent beads.

During our “Altered Pages” workshop, participants combined book pages with black-out technique, glitter, paint chip samples and other collage materials to create fresh juxtapositions and poetic musings.

Book pages, maps, maps on maps, stencils and ribbon add layers of texture, design and meaning.

Our fearless leader, City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Supervisor, and creator of the Art Lab and the Residency program, Naomi, begins to ready the Studio for the new Artists-in-Residence, “moving in” the following week.

One last turn around the Studio, and the Big Beach Book,

before it goes into its last incarnation (that I will have a hand in, anyway…)

with a few elements saved for posterity…for the moment anyway…

What. A. Sublime. Experience.
Gratitudes.