• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Debra Disman

Artist

  • Work
  • About
    • CV
    • Media
  • News
  • Contact
  • Blog

Sculptural Books

Sharing Shows 2: “ALL STITCHED UP”

June 29, 2019 By Debra Disman

I am excited and honored to be included in a number of current and upcoming shows across the US, and will be sharing about them in blog form, as well as in the EVENTS  section of my website, as a way of further describing and chronicling my practice, honoring colleagues, and sharing gratitude for these opportunities and the people, organizations and institutions that make them happen. Shout out to Elon Schoenholz, Photographer extraordinaire who took the photographs below of “Prairie“, which will be shown in:

All Stitched Up
An international juried book arts exhibition
September 3rd – December 11th, 2019
Collins Memorial Library University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA


Prairie, (Front Cover, Outside) 2018, 10.25″ x 45″ x 15.25″, bookboard, jute cord, watercolor paper, tissue paper


Prairie, (inside) 2018, 10.25″ x 45″ x 15.25″, bookboard, jute cord, watercolor paper, tissue paper


Prairie, (Outside) 2018, 10.25″ x 45″ x 15.25″, bookboard, jute cord, watercolor paper, tissue paper

“To stitch is to join together, to mend, or fasten as with stitches – to sew. To stitch is to bring together fabric, paper, wounds of the body, or cultural divides. Stitching can be an act of healing, hope, practicality, creativity, and revolution. All Stitched Up recognizes and celebrates the work of book artists’ where stitching has become an integral part of the visual design. Curators Catherine Alice Michaelis, Jane A. Carlin, and Diana Weymar will jury the show and a print catalogue will be created.

We are particularly (but not solely) interested in works that showcase collaboration and focus on building a sense of shared community. That may include collaboration between two or more artists, two or more communities, or crowd-sourced projects. Sewing that joins people and ideas link us to historical social and political sewing circles from the abolitionist movement of the 1800s, to the corporate resistant DIY movement kindled by the Riots Grrrls in the 1990s, to the knitting collectives of today that focus on the anti-war, pro-science, and pro-choice movements. In addition, you may draw inspiration from the embroidered books of the Victorian period, the rise of needlecrafts during the Arts & Crafts period, and family traditions of sewing by machine or hand stitching.” —All Stitched Up

Schedule:

September 3rd – show opens
September 14th – opening celebration
December 11th – show closes

Curators

Catherine Alice Michaelis is an artist, writer, publisher, curator, teacher, and most recently – videopoet and animator. As proprietor of May Day Press, she is best known for her artist’s books that incorporate letterpress and pressure printing techniques. In 1998, Catherine began to feature sewing in her print work in relation to family, intimate secrets, and emotional healing. She collaborates often, with both artists and writers, and her 1999 collaborative project, Stack the Deck: 22 Artists Mark the Cards for Women’s Health & Healing, is frequently on show somewhere. Her artist’s books have been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout the U.S. and are collected in over 80 institutions. Catherine was profiled in the ‘Nature’ episode of Craft in America on PBS in 2017. She lives near Olympia, Washington.

Jane A. Carlin is currently the Library Director at the Collins Memorial Library at the University of Puget Sound. Prior to joining Puget Sound, Jane was the Director of the Design, Architecture, Art and Planning Library at the University of Cincinnati and has also held positions at Oxford Brooks University in Oxford, England, University of Texas, Arlington and Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Jane has long been an advocate for the artists’ book. Her graduate these, A History of Art Book Publishing in Great Britain, serves as the foundation for many programs and classes she has taught on the art and history of books, including classes on William Morris, the history of the book, as well as artists’ books and social justice movements. In 2008, Jane brought the book arts to the Collins Library and has worked with community members to form Puget Sound Book Artists, an organization dedicated to supporting and promoting book arts. Jane is the curator of numerous exhibits at the Collins Library and currently serves as the Vice-President of the PSBA organization.

Diana Weymar lives in Victoria, BC. She has a studio practice and is the creator of Interwoven Stories, an international textile project. She grew up in the wilderness of Northern British Columbia, studied creative writing at Princeton, and worked in film in New York City. Interwoven Stories has been exhibited and implemented in Colombia, Switzerland, Syria, Canada, and the States. She has worked with, is working with or had a residency with The Zen Hospice Project, The Nantucket Atheneum, The University of Puget Sound, UMass Amherst, The Peddie School, The Arts Council of Princeton, Build Peace, Trans Tipping Point Project, and The Textile Arts Center (Manhattan). Her work has been exhibited and collected in the States and Canada. She also curated art for the NRG Energy Headquarters in Princeton, NJ.

I am thrilled and honored to be n this show, and cannot wait to see the catalog of all the Stitched Up works included.
It should be fascinating.

Gratitudes.

Filed Under: Artists' Books, BOOKS, Exhibitions, Work Tagged With: "All Stitched Up", Artists' Book/s, Books made From hand, Catherine Alice Michaelis, Collins Memorial Library, Collins Memorial Library University of Puget Sound, Diana Weymar’, Elon Schoenholz, Exhibitions, Group Exhbition, Group Shows, Handmade Books, Jane A. Carlin, Puget Sounhd, Sculptural Books, Shows, Stitching, Tacoma, University of Puget Sound, WA, Washington

Sharing Shows 1: “OFFAL”

June 21, 2019 By Debra Disman

I am excited and honored to be included in a number of current and upcoming shows across the US, and will be sharing about them in blog form, as well as in the EVENTS  section of my website, as a way of further describing and chronicling my practice, honoring colleagues, and sharing gratitude for these opportunities and the people, organizations and institutions that make them happen. Shout out to Steven Wong, astrobuddha and Curator at the LAMAG/the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Elon Schoenholz, Photographer extraordinaire.

First up is not too awful, just a little bit

“OFFAL”

August 15 – September 29
Opening reception: Sunday, August 11, 2 – 5 PM

The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery presents Offal, a group exhibition conceived from the subject of offal (ˈôfəl,ˈäfəl) or the culture of consuming innards.

WOW.

“Of all cultural taboos, those related to food are the most difficult to dispel. Food represents deeply rooted sets of ideas and beliefs — particularly with respect to self-identity and community. Offal is no different. In some cultures, offal is stigmatized for its socioeconomic and racial implications, while others treat and eat offal as an everyday means of survival or a delicacy. In keeping with this anatomy of offal, the exhibition seeks to expand the traditional parameters of cultural identity: raw, refigured and, in some cases, delightfully grotesque.” —OFFAL

I will be showing “Throes of the Body“,  sculptural Artists’ Book, 13 x 27 x 10.25”, mixed media, 2018

Side view, open/outside-inside

Front view, open/inside

Back view, open/outside
Photos: Elon Schoenholz  (Beautiful work…)

“The exhibition features a variety of work from forty-three Los Angeles-based contemporary artists who use traditional and unconventional techniques and media in their approach to the five overlapping themes that feed into the exhibition: labor, discard and waste, transcultural idioms, cultural retention and shame, and the abject. Notable works include Jim Shaw’s Dream Object (Digestive tract sculpture), a mixed media sculpture exploring their “inner” unconscious psyche; Victoria Reynolds’s oil paintings and charcoal drawings that give life to disemboweled organs while simultaneously serving as a memento mori of unfamiliar culinary cuts/organs only found in specialty “ethnic” markets; Danial Nord’s Sleeper, a video-driven sculptural fountain in the form of a translucent sculpture molded from his own body that examines the individual and societal consumption and digestion of today’s political rhetoric – on exhibit for the first time in Los Angeles; and a video collaboration between Gazelle Samizay and Labkhand Olfatmanesh that explores émigrés food traditions that can often outlive language through sanctifying ceremonies and family bonds.

At its heart, the exhibition seeks to unpack and celebrate the city of Los Angeles’ relationship to diversity and food in all of its forms — ultimately speaking to the offal in all of us.

Artists participating in Offal were selected from an open call for entries by a jury comprised of Ron Finley, proponent of urban gardening and South LA community leader; Julio César Morales, artist, educator, and curator; and Genevieve Erin O’Brien, artist, culinary adventurer and community organizer.

The selected artists include Panteha Abareshi, Edmund Arevalo, Phoebe Barnum, Andrea Bogdan, Johanna Breiding, SoYun Cho, Heisue Chung-Matheu, Ciriza, Debra Disman, Alexandre Dorriz, gloria galvez, Natalia Garcia Clark, Matt Hollis, Sara Hunsucker, Grace Hwang, Sarah Julig, Shannon Keller, Sydney Mills, Leo Mondor, Flavia Monteiro, Albert Natian, Alex Nazari, Jim Newberry, Dakota Noot, Avital Oehler, Labkhand Olfatmanesh, Abel Olivieri, Elisa Ortega Montilla, Carolie Parker, Antonia Price, Colin Roberts, Larisa Safaryan, Gazelle Samizay, Stephanie Sherwood, Emilia Ukkonen and Reed van Brunschot.

In addition, a selection of artists were invited to participate in the exhibition, including Bonnie Huang, Robert Karimi, Mark Mulroney, Danial Nord, Victoria Reynolds, Jim Shaw, Jeannine Shinoda and Jeffrey Vallance.” — OFFAL

It will be just “offally” fascinating, to see what everyone has done…can’t wait for this one!

Is not our work really, truly finished until it has been seen?

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Exhibitions, New Work, Work Tagged With: Artists' Book/s, Elon Schoenholz, Exhibitions, Group Exhbition, Group Shows, LAMAG, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, OFFAL, Sculptural Books, Shows, Steven Wong

FORMATION at UCLA: Hang Out (4)

June 2, 2019 By Debra Disman

“FORMATION”: The Guild of Book Workers 2018-2019 Traveling Juried Exhibition just closed at UCLA.

University of California, Los Angeles
Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery
Los Angeles, CA
March 15–May 30, 2019

“Simply defined by Merriam Webster as “an act of giving form or shape to something,” ‘formation‘ can insinuate process, history, creation, change, beginnings, an arrangement, botany and landscape, personal narratives and impersonal storytelling. As artists, designers and craftspeople with our own histories that form us, we also play a vital role in the formation of objects and experiences; pulp molded into paper, paper folded into books, books shelved into a library.

What is the final product, if not for the methods used to create it? What makes us into the artists we are? What pushes us to continue to create?” –FORMATION

I am extremely honored to have two pieces in FORMATION, The Guild of Book Workers 2018-2019 traveling juried exhibition, with a theme evoking a wide array of interpretations. In this post, I share my work included in the show; “Hang Out”, and “Black Hang Out”.


“Hang Out” was initially displayed laying down. I asked for it to be standing, and the wonderful staff followed suit.


Interior detail


Both books standing

I did my best to capture the feel of these pieces when they showed in the Library Lobby Gallery alongside a myriad of varied, extraordinary, exemplary, breathtaking works created by other artists and makers in whose company I am moved and proud to be.

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, BOOKS, Exhibitions, Work Tagged With: ARTIST'S BOOKS, Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery, Debra Disman, Exhibition, FORMATION, FORMATION TRAVELLING SHOW, Group Exhibition, Group Show, Handmade Books, Los Angeles, Mixed media, Sculptural Books, Show, The Guild of Book Workers, Travelling Exhibition, UCLA, University of California

“All Stitched Up”

May 19, 2019 By Debra Disman

I am thrilled and honored to be showing my work “Prairie”  in “All Stitched Up”
An international juried book arts exhibition
September 3rd – December 11th, 2019
September 14th – opening celebration
Collins Memorial Library University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA

“To stitch is to join together, to mend, or fasten as with stitches – to sew. To stitch is to bring together fabric, paper, wounds of the body, or cultural divides. Stitching can be an act of healing, hope, practicality, creativity, and revolution. All Stitched Up recognizes and celebrates the work of book artists’ where stitching has become an integral part of the visual design. Curators Catherine Alice Michaelis, Jane A. Carlin, and Diana Weymar will jury the show and a print catalogue will be created.

We are particularly (but not solely) interested in works that showcase collaboration and focus on building a sense of shared community. That may include collaboration between two or more artists, two or more communities, or crowd-sourced projects. Sewing that joins people and ideas link us to historical social and political sewing circles from the abolitionist movement of the 1800s, to the corporate resistant DIY movement kindled by the Riots Grrrls in the 1990s, to the knitting collectives of today that focus on the anti-war, pro-science, and pro-choice movements. In addition, you may draw inspiration from the embroidered books of the Victorian period, the rise of needlecrafts during the Arts & Crafts period, and family traditions of sewing by machine or hand stitching.

This exhibition will include pages from Diana Weymar’s Interwoven Stories project. This includes Refashioning Identity, which was created by members of the Puget Sound community in 2016/17 as facilitated by Weymar.” —All Stitched Up

 

Tagged With: "All Stitched Up", ARTIST'S BOOKS, Catherine Alice Michaelis, Collins Memorial Library University of Puget Sound, Diana Weymar’, Exhibition, FORMATION, Group Exhibition, Group Show, Handmade Books, International juried book arts exhibition, Jane A. Carlin, Mixed media, Sculptural Books, Show, Tacoma, University of Puget Sound, WA

FORMATION at UCLA: The Artists (4)

May 9, 2019 By Debra Disman

“FORMATION”: The Guild of Book Workers 2018-2019 Traveling Juried Exhibition is currently showing at UCLA!

University of California, Los Angeles
Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery
Los Angeles, CA
March 15–May 25, 2019

“Simply defined by Merriam Webster as “an act of giving form or shape to something,” ‘formation‘ can insinuate process, history, creation, change, beginnings, an arrangement, botany and landscape, personal narratives and impersonal storytelling. As artists, designers and craftspeople with our own histories that form us, we also play a vital role in the formation of objects and experiences; pulp molded into paper, paper folded into books, books shelved into a library.

What is the final product, if not for the methods used to create it? What makes us into the artists we are? What pushes us to continue to create?” –FORMATION

I am extremely honored to have two pieces in FORMATION, The Guild of Book Workers 2018-2019 traveling juried exhibition, with a theme evoking a wide array of interpretations.

In this post, I share my contribution, “Hang Out”, and “Black Hang Out” to the show.

I leave it to you to interpret the titles. One knowledgable artist upon seeing my work asked  if it was “Hedi Kyle meets Eva Hesse?” She may be right. Hedi and Eva, born 1937 and 1936 respectively, in Germany, with vastly different life trajectories., both unforgettable and profoundly impactful during their time, and for future generations. It is a fascinating supposition, and bravo, Karen Schiff for the insight and intuition.

Thank you for taking a look, and please check back soon as I share the work of many other talented artists who grace this Show!

 

 

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, Exhibitions, Work Tagged With: ARTIST'S BOOKS, Books as Art, Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery, Debra Disman, Eva Hesse, Exhibition, FORMATION, FORMATION TRAVELLING SHOW, FORMATION: Guild of Bookworkers Traveling Exhibition, Group Exhibition, Group Show, Handmade Books, Hedi Kyle, Karen Schiff, Los Angeles, Mixed media, Sculptural Books, Show, The Guild of Book Workers, The Guild of Bookworkers Travelling Juried Show, UCLA

FORMATION at UCLA: The Artists (3)

April 30, 2019 By Debra Disman

“FORMATION”: The Guild of Book Workers 2018-2019 Traveling Juried Exhibition is currently showing at UCLA!

University of California, Los Angeles
Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery
Los Angeles, CA
March 15–May 25, 2019

I am extremely honored to have two pieces in FORMATION, The Guild of Book Workers 2018-2019 traveling juried exhibition, with a theme evoking a wide array of interpretations. However, in this series of posts, I will highlight an array of the talented artists participating in the show. What wonderful company to be in!

“Simply defined by Merriam Webster as “an act of giving form or shape to something,” ‘formation‘ can insinuate process, history, creation, change, beginnings, an arrangement, botany and landscape, personal narratives and impersonal storytelling. As artists, designers and craftspeople with our own histories that form us, we also play a vital role in the formation of objects and experiences; pulp molded into paper, paper folded into books, books shelved into a library.

What is the final product, if not for the methods used to create it? What makes us into the artists we are? What pushes us to continue to create?” –FORMATION

 

More to come!

Filed Under: ARTISTS, Artists' Books, Exhibitions, Work Tagged With: ARTIST'S BOOKS, Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery, Christopher McAfee, Exhibition, FORMATION, FORMATION TRAVELLING SHOW, Group Exhibition, Group Show, Handmade Books, Los Angeles, Mixed media, Rebecca Phillio, Sculptural Books, Show, The Guild of Book Workers, Thomas Parker Williams, Travelling Exhibition, UCLA, University of California, Valerie Carrigan

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Go to page 6
  • Go to page 7
  • Go to page 8
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 10
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Recent Blog Posts