Statement

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I work with paint, sculpture, and assemblage to explore patterns found in natural growth, form, and collective systems. 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 in both microscopic and macroscopic imagery. My art practice is informed by my education in the fields of medicine and biotechnology. As I create work, I collect images of everything from histology slides to ancient rituals. Rather than researching a specific, predetermined idea, I gather collections of images and allow for a pattern to emerge from the chaos. I make 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, stepping outside the human vantage point to occupy a timeless, scaleless, culture-less existence. I create things that are purposefully ambiguous, but simultaneously representational of the natural world. 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 sentient creatures. 

Jasmine Raskas lives and works in St. Louis, Missouri. Their work has been shown across the region, including at Duane Reed 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. They are a resident artist at Silver Sycamore Gallery in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, and Artisans in The Loop in St. Louis, Missouri. Publications and features have appeared in Create! Magazine, Gesso Magazine, HEC-TV, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, KDHX radio, and Art Saint Louis. 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 as an ICF certified coach and now a counseling student pursuing a master’s degree in clinical mental health at Webster University in St. Louis. 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 arts