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Debra Disman

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Mulberry paper

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

“Unfolding Possibilities” for RECOVERY JUSTICE: BEING WELL

August 16, 2021 By Debra Disman

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’s Arts 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” is on view  in the Recovery Justice: Being Well exhibition, at 18th Street Art Center‘s Airport Campus Gallery, through September 10, 2021.

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Exhibitions, New Work, Presentations, 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

“Unfolding Possibilities”: The Video

August 8, 2021 By Debra Disman

Sharing the video,
“Debra Disman: Unfolding Possibilities”

Jeny Amaya – filmmaker

18th Street Arts Center– host

Why We Rise: supporter

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’s Arts Learning Lab @ Home: called: Bookmaking with Self-Compassion.

 

See the “Bookmaking with Self-Compassion 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.  How to put it all together?

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”). 

Jeny Amaya of 18th Street Arts Center created a video sharing about the workshop and the making of “Unfolding Possibilities” and it was screened at
LEFT/RIGHT/HERE: An Outdoor Art Experience
a one-night only interactive outdoor and indoor art experience as part of the exhibition Recovery Justice: Being Well. 
on
July 10, 2021 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm.

View the film!
“Debra Disman: Unfolding Possibilities”

Thank you, Jeny Amaya, 18th Street Arts Center, and Why We Rise LA for the opportunity to participate in all of these activities, and in collaboration with you and the community at-large, make a collective contribution.

Filed Under: Artist in Residence, ARTISTS, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Exhibitions, New Work, Presentations, Teaching Artist Tagged With: 18th Street Airport Gallery, 18th Street Arts Center, 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, Filming, Flower Fold, Flower Fold Book, Flower Fold Structure, Folded Books, Handmade Books, Interview, Jeny Amaya, LeftRightHere, Los Angeles Department of Mental Health, Making Books By Hand, Mulberry paper, Online Art Workshops, Outdoor Screening, Pandemic, Pandemic Art projects, RECOVERY JUSTICE: Being Well, Respending to the Pandemic, Screening, Unfolding Possibilities, Use Your Words, Video, We Rise, We Rise LA

“Unfolding Possibilities”: The Screening

August 2, 2021 By Debra Disman

https://debradisman.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/VID_27721116_190652_719.mp4

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’s Arts 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.  How to put it all together?

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”). 

Jeny Amaya of 18th Street Arts Center created a video sharing about the workshop and the making of “Unfolding Possibilities” and it was screened at
LEFT/RIGHT/HERE: An Outdoor Art Experience
a one-night only interactive outdoor and indoor art experience as part of the exhibition Recovery Justice: Being Well. 
on
July 10, 2021 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm.

Here are some stills from that screening. Such a wonderful experience!


Screened on the side of the Santa Monica Airport Hanger housing the 18th Street Art Center’s Airport Campus, the video came to life as the skies darkened. “Unfolding Possibilities” the artists’ book, was also on view.


A multitude of threads were used to stitch the words into the book.


Jeny did a beautiful job of documenting the process of creating the book,


highlighting the idea of possibility,


and capturing how the flower fold book structure was created.


She showed my 18th Street Arts Center studio,


and the book as a whole, possibilities unfolding.

Always, Possibilities.

Watch the video in full!

Filed Under: Artist in Residence, ARTISTS, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Exhibitions, Presentations, Work Tagged With: 18th Street Airport Gallery, 18th Street Arts Center, 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, Handmade Books, Jeny Amaya, LeftRightHere, Los Angeles Department of Mental Health, Making Books By Hand, Mulberry paper, Online Art Workshops, Outdoor Screening, Pandemic, Pandemic Art projects, RECOVERY JUSTICE: Being Well, Respending to the Pandemic, Screening, Unfolding Possibilities, Use Your Words, Video, We Rise, We Rise LA

“Unfolding Possibilities – Possibilities Unfolding”: The Artists’ Book

July 28, 2021 By Debra Disman


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’s Arts 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.

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”). 

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.  How to put it all together?

I had already constructed the flower fold book, comprised of 12 x 12 x 12″ sheets of thick ivory colored  mulberry paper, folded and glued together to create a sequence of repeating unfolding forms.

I began with sketching and jotting down ideas, and my own emotions, as part of my morning writing practice, then developed a petal-like schemata for the words, reflecting the flower fold book structure.

I played around with fonts, settled on one, determined the sizing for the words, and printed them all out, then cut them into strips, so each could be easily seen. Laid out on my work tables, they seemed to call out for attention and consideration. I placed my Mom’s amazing half-century old (at least) sewing box on the table as an inspirational centrifuge, and set to work.

I put together words in a four point petal formation on each section, both front and back, of the structure, using the folds as a guide, and paired some words that related to each other, and others that were opposed, to express the wide range of human emotions and experiences brought forth by the pandemic.
I chose sewing thread from my Mom’s box to reflect the everyday-ness of the activity of sewing  and the healing function of stitching, and mending through sewing.
Using a soft, low-tack tape, I gently adhered each word to the structure, then gave it my awl, to punch the sewing holes for each word.
Soon realizing I would be using up all my Mom’s remaining sewing thread, I invested in a set of brilliantly colored cotton threads, and combined tones and hues of each chosen color to give each word brilliance, depth and complexity, using my study, experience and practice of color associations. It was amazing to see a virtual garden of words, generated by the community, come to life and bloom on the pages of the flower fold book.
Some would find the sewing process tedious, but it is my joy…to see the words unfold and blossom, a colorful array of possibilities.
The front and back covers were stitched in gold to express the golden thread of empathy and humanity that connects us all, in spite of and perhaps amplified by the shared experience of pandemic. A golden thread expressing the silver lining of a crisis. The covers are made of several sheets of mulberry paper glued together to create a pasted paper protector, with a yellow sheet sandwiched within to subtly reflect the gold thread.
Unfolding Possibilities, Possibilities Unfolding, blooming like a flower, and framed in gold.

 

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, BOOKS, New Work, Presentations, Teaching Artist, Work Tagged With: ("Unfolding Possibilities - Possibilities Unfolding"), 18th Street Arts Center, 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, Flower Fold, Flower Fold Book, Flower Fold Structure, Folded Books, Handmade Books, Los Angeles Department of Mental Health, Making Books By Hand, Mulberry paper, Online Art Workshops, Pandemic, Pandemic Art projects, Respending to the Pandemic, Unfolding Possibilities, Use Your Words, We Rise, We Rise LA

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