Statement

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I work with paint, sculpture, and installation. My art explores sentience and organic growth in the context of world-building. I’m fascinated by the mathematical rules that govern the emergence of physical structures and information-based systems. For example, the same branching patterns are found in the distribution of rivers, networks of neurons, a strike of lightning, and the growth of a tree. These patterns matter to me because of how they re-occur across multiple levels of scale, appearing at both the microscopic and macroscopic points in space. 

I create work that is purposefully ambiguous, but yet simultaneously representational of the natural world. I work in collaboration with what’s around me, releasing control over outcomes and allowing the unconscious to lead the way. Throughout the process, I embody the mindset of an intergalactic observer, attempting to step outside the human vantage point and occupy a timeless, scaleless, harmonious existence.

I’m particularly interested in the point at which objects and systems are labeled to be intelligent, conscious, or alive, and how these distinctions relate to the 21st century’s relationship to plants and technology. My work gives animistic qualities to a variety of forms exploring the crossroads at which intelligent systems may alternatively be defined as beings. 

(My practice is informed by my education in biology and medicine as well as my current work as a master's-level counselor in training.)

Jasmine Raskas (she/they) lives and works in St. Louis, Missouri. Her work has been shown across the region, including at Duane Reed Gallery, Houska Gallery, Fenix Arts, The Foundry Art Centre, St. Louis Artists’ Guild, Art Saint Louis, St. Louis Public Library, The Jacoby Art Center, 31 Art Gallery, Osage Arts Center, The Stone Spiral Gallery, and St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Publications and features have appeared in Create! Magazine, Gesso Magazine, HEC-TV, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, KDHX radio and Ladue News. Awards include grants from The Luminary’s Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Regional Art Commission (RAC) in St. Louis, in addition to graduating from the RAC-Teaching Artist Institute. Jasmine’s teaching experience includes work at the intersection of creativity and wellness. They previously worked as the Lead Art Facilitator at the non-profit inclusion-oriented studio, Artists First, and continue to remain involved with community-based and inclusion-oriented art initiatives. Jasmine is currently a student at Webster University in St. Louis pursuing a Master’s degree in Counseling-Clinical Mental Health.