Artist
Join us online as we celebrate “Summer With The Library”, the LAPL Summer 2021 Reading Program!
Los Angles Department of Cultural Affairs Artist in Residence Debra Disman will lead you in creating a “closed spine” version of the Accordion Fold Book.
Use this book for journaling, doodling, sketching, photographs, dreaming, recipes and more!
Materials packets available.
Please see flier above for details!
“Being Well” is what we seek together as neighbors, and recalls one of the central guiding principles of the City of Santa Monica, the notion of “wellbeing” as key to civic health. Recovery Justice: Being Well, aims to highlight the recent circumstances that have evolved during the pandemic (racial justice demonstrations and destruction, as well as social discontent and general disconnection) into a series of self-organized artist projects that merges the exterior and interior public spaces of City of Santa Monica property. 18th Street Airport Campus at Santa Monica Municipal Airport will be the site where artists reimagine the city and beyond in the midst of complex social unrest globally. Recovery Justice will recuperate through various means the digital and physical footprints left in a city that struggles to reclaim the seemingly peaceful environment it once had. Artists will develop a palette for making and sharing artworks responding to the street experience in safe, healing and expressive modes. This porous series is a point of departure to reconcile and redefine the concept of justice.
For the We Rise series of projects related to Recovery Justice: Being Well, 18th Street Arts Center will produce a series of artist-led workshops and civic engagement projects addressing mental health for youth and for families in Spanish and English.
ARTS LEARNING LAB @ HOME: CREATIVE SELF-COMPASSION
This May, we are thrilled to present three new Arts Learning Lab @ Home art-making workshops for families all around wellbeing and self-compassion. May is Mental Health Awareness month, and taking time for creativity together with loved ones is a key part of self-care in these uncertain times. We are partnering with WE RISE LA (https://werise.la/) to bring these moments for creative growth to you, centered around the theme of wellbeing as we navigate coming out of a pandemic and transitioning to new routines together.
We will be providing ALL@HOME Art Kits with materials for each workshop that will be available for pick up from 1639 18th Street, Santa Monica, for those that live in the LA Metro area, but all materials will also be easily found at home or at a local supply store. More information on Art Kit pick-up will be provided once you register for a workshop. Supplies are limited and are first come, first serve. All of the virtual workshops will be presented on Zoom, and interpretation will be provided in both English and Spanish.
May 15, 2021 at 11 AM- 12:30 PM [Virtual: Zoom] Bookmaking with Self-Compassion | Debra Disman
Join 18th Street Arts Center artist in residence, Debra Disman and discover how to create the beautiful, fun and versatile Flower Fold book into which you can write or paste wishes, hopes, prayers and dreams, make into a chain to hang in your home, or give as a gift. Explore what the pandemic has meant to you while learning new skills and creating a unique expression of renewal and rebirth during the spring season.
2021 it seems, may also prove to be a year like no other, finding us teaching online, in my case through Zoom, engaging in what is called, “distance learning”. Well, you can’t beat the commute and clean-up time, and I found there are indeed ways to connect significantly with students and colleagues, and even teach some things!
In March 2021, I led an scroll making program in honor of Women’s History Month focused on Celebrating Women Artists, at the Panorama City Branch Library, part of my artist residency in bookmaking there, through the wonderful Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
We looked at images and information about three great women artists, Faith Ringgold, Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keeffe, and Branch Manager Roman shared some of Faith Ringgold‘s books from the Library!
Participants were invited to cut out the provided images of the artists, their work, and the information about them, and add them to sheets of brightly colored tag board paper, which they had attached to wooden sticks, or dowels at either end, to create unique scrolls.
Each maker created a different composition with the materials provided in our fun and informative supplies packets.
One young maker added painting to the surface, then his father added images honoring women artists to complete the scroll!
Scrolls could be horizontal or vertical, and rolled up at either end and then unfurled.
Ribbon was provided for participants to keep their rolled scrolls in place if they wished to.
Here Panorama City Branch Library Branch Manager Roman gets into the act!
An honoring of Women’s History Month, Women Artists, specific women artists, the Library, and especially, of human creativity, imagination and ingenuity!
SO needed, especially during this past year and into the current one.
As everyone keeps saying, 2020 was a year like no other. Well, no-one had seen 2021 yet.
2021 it seems, may also prove to be a year like no other, finding us teaching online, in my case through Zoom, engaging in what is called, “distance learning”. Well, you can’t beat the commute and clean-up time, and I found there are indeed ways to connect significantly with students and colleagues, and even teach some things!
In February 2021, I led an accordion book with pockets program at the Panorama City Branch Library, part of my artist residency in bookmaking there, through the wonderful Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Using bright tag board and richly patterned origami papers,
participants learned the accordion/consertina fold,
how to create pockets in their books,
how to cover and embellish their covers,
and how to add hopes and wishes to their pockets!
Whole families, as well as Library staff, got into the act.
Pure Joy.