Debra Disman
KnoW Safe Place, 2023
Canvas, netting, hemp cord, nylon cord, cotton cord, lace, ribbon, acrylic paint, wood 60 x 48 x 48"
“KnoW Safe Place” is an installation composed of 3 two-dimensional components that create a three-dimensional architectural space which can be entered and thus experienced from both within and without. In a time of fraught change, conflict and uncertainty, the work speaks to the challenge of finding any safe place to be, while simultaneously providing this to the viewer-participant. Creating such a place out of textiles, paint and wood expresses the power and dignity of our own making processes and imagination.
Debra Disman
I Can’t I Won’t I Will I Do, 2022
Repurposed cotton table runner, acrylic paint, hemp cord 13 x 71.5"
"I Can't I Won't I Will I Do" is a hanging work, a textural and textual tapestry that speaks to the effort, the will and the energy required to create, to bring ideas to life, to DO; and our initial resistance to this process. The stitched text and tangled threads run the length of the table runner.
Debra Disman
Profusion, 2018
bookbinders' board, mulberry paper, paint, canvas, watercolor paper and hemp cord 8.75 x 24.5 x 7.75"
"Profusion" is a sculptural Artists' Book, drawing upon references to the body, the structure of the book, and intense materiality. It stands upright on a pedestal, shelf, table or another surface parallel to the floor. When fully opened, it can span up to 24.5" wide
Debra Disman
Red Notebook (Here’s to the Red, White + Blue), 2021
REPURPOSED PLASTIC PLACEMAT, canvas, hemp cord, lace, burlap, linen thread 8.5 x 12.5 x 6.5"
"Red Notebook", a unique artists' book, is part of a series called "Here's to the Red, White + Blue", a response to the conflicted and decidedly Un-united response of the United States to the COVID-19 pandemic. Containing intensely textured, tensely contrasting materials, it can also stand alone as a bookish invitation to explore the mysteries of the body, the soul, and a confounding chapter in the story of a nation.
Debra Disman
Prairie, 2018
Bookbinders' board, paperboard, watercolor paper, tissue paper, jute cord, 10.25" x 47" x 15.25"
"Prairie" is a sculptural Artists' Book made of book and other board, tissue and watercolor paper and jute cord. It stands upright on a pedestal, shelf, table or other surface parallel to the floor. When opened, it can span up to 47" wide.
Debra Disman
Excavation of the Interior, 2021
wood, mulberry paper, canvas, muslin, watercolor paper, hemp cord and linen thread. 12 x 28 x 12.5"
"Excavation of the Interior" is a sculpture evolving out of the form of the book, which draws parallels between the book, built environment and body as place and space. It stands upright in any degree of opened/closed. Fully open, it can span up to 28" wide.
Debra Disman
Rent Wound Tear, Mend Heal Repair, 2022
Canvas, acrylic paint, string, hemp cord, lace 64 x 68" (dimensions variable)
RENT WOUND TEAR, MEND HEAL REPAIR, TEND REVEAL CARE is a journey, a process, and perhaps one that is never done, never complete, always unfolding.
Debra Disman
It’s Not Black and White, 2021
Bookbinders' board,, canvas, mulberry paper, used typewriter ribbon and hemp cord 9 x 22 x 7.5"
"It's Not Black and White" draws from the form of the codex book, with strings standing in for pages, and speaks to the increasingly dangerous black and white rhetoric sweeping our planet. Its "bars", alternating stripes of repurposed typewriter tape no longer extant in our world as a modus of communication, and mulberry paper, a "natural" material sourced from a tree, speak to the concurrently increasing level of incarceration of human beings, ideas and freedom. It can be displayed standing up, in any degree of opened or closed on a surface parallel to the floor. When opened, it can span up to 22 inches wide.
Debra Disman
Torrent and Tangle: Keep Your House In Order, 2019
Bookbinders' board, watercolor paper, mulberry paper, hemp cord, acrylic paint, ribbon, lace 10.5 x 25 x 18”
"Torrent and Tangle: Keep Your House In Order" is a mixed media sculpture that emerged from the form of the book, and draws parallels between the structure or architecture of the book and the built environment. The doors and accordion folded corners of the piece can be opened, closed or stretched.
Debra Disman
Hopes and Fears and…, 2020
Textile samples, linen thread 24.5 x 16.25"
“Hopes and Fears and…” describes a state where the mind obsessively repeats what it fears, framed in the mantle of hope. Such a process is a way of dealing with darkness. Are not hope and fear intrinsically linked as two sides of the same coin? We fear, then we hope that the realization of our fears does not manifest. All the hopes and fears stitched into this work are born of the state of our world, planet, society, and culture, and are voiced by many across the globe. This piece gives voice to those voices as well as my own.
