Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, Jasmine spent a significant part of her early life navigating the sub/urban Los Angeles landscape on foot or on a bus.  This afforded her the opportunity to connect intimately to places that had significance to her and her community.  Suffering from a deep nostalgia and longing to preserve these spaces, she finds herself going back time and time again to record what is still there. She finds beauty and comfort in the mismatched signage, crowded window displays, busy sidewalks, hand-painted murals, and power lines that frame the visual narrative of Los Angeles. The delicate balance between those elements and the natural landscape that surrounds it features prominently in her work.  Most of the trees that have become so distinctively Los Angeles are non-native species that become symbolic of the transplanted population claiming home to a place where they might not have originated from, but are now deeply embedded. A recognizable silhouette continually emerges as palm and cypress trees dot the skyline that frames the structures they surround.

 

Looking at the world through the lens of a printmaker, she notices how cities are layered spaces where multiple elements interact with one another. Each piece that she creates utilizes the language of print to create semi-altered landscapes from existing spaces.  The flexibility of the printmaking medium allows her to combine hand-carved relief prints, screenprinted photo-based stencils, collages, and traditional quilting techniques to create multi-layered landscapes. She connects people, architecture, and signage with ink, paper, fabric, needle, and thread to illustrate the complexity and beauty of an ever-changing landscape not often seen on postcards and travel brochures.

 

Jasmine is currently an Associate Professor of Art in 2D Foundations and Print Media at California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo, Ca.