Interview by Jimon

1-Where do you currently reside and work?  Los Angeles

2-How would you describe Jenny Rask?  “Backasswards”

…also…

Resourceful, illogical, expeditious, uncomfortable, object affectionate, superstitious, mushy, impossible, limitless, confused, elaborate, uncertain, certain, over thinking, authentic, contradictory, optimistic.

3-Did you attend an art school or is it inherent?  I would say it’s inherent even though I did end up getting my MFA in Sculpture. I wanted to go to art school for my undergraduate degree, but stayed in Oregon to get a BA in Journalism from U of O. I looked for creative areas in the program to express myself at the time and spent a lot of time learning about photography and how to research writing projects. Both the discovery of color and form through photography and unquenchable curiosity (researching ideas) are still intrinsic to my practice. After moving back to Portland, post college. I was already making small ephemeral sculptures from found objects and waste. I was at the time inspired by frequenting the ”UFO museum” in downtown Portland, founded by local artist Lex Loeb housing his strange and wondrous makeshift artworks, some built to communicate with alien life.  After moving to New York and working at MTV in the 90s, I continued to cultivate my sensibility responding to a decade of living daily NYC life (fashion, design, nightlife) Jump to childrearing, having 3 kids and moving to Los Angeles I found myself creating artworks inspired by imminent beauty found in the mundane routine of domestic life. I started an IG account called ‘Laundry 24/7’ photo documenting daily overflowing colorful piles of laundry waiting to be washed. It was a natural connection for me to work with fibers/textiles at this point so I learned how to weave on a loom. Color and texture continued to play a vital role in my work. I wanted to challenge the convention that weavings had to hang on the wall and began weaving freeform without a loom or really a frame and made 3 dimensional soft sculptures. About 4 years ago (after experimenting with various materials in combination with textiles) I went back to school and received my MFA in Sculpture from Cal State Long Beach. My Masters was a bit different for me than other people in that I was able to use my time there experimenting with various processes and diverse materials while working on a reoccurring interest in ‘connecting contrasts’. My program was interdisciplinary so I was able to learn about and practice ceramics, mold-making and drawing.

4-How long have you been making art and what lead you to start?  My dad was a dentist and in the 70’s we would go downstairs in his office to his lab where he and a colleague made temporaries, crowns, fake teeth etc and we would cast jewelry that we had sculpted together from dental wax. We would melt down the gold or silver from thrown out extracted patient’s fillings and old crowns and cast rings and charms for necklaces. The process was super accessible and fascinating. I have a special fondness for mold making and used it quite a bit for a while in my work. But it is not a cheap venture when you go big and its extremely wasteful resource wise. I actually am more attracted to the process in a sense than the actual final objects that are cast from the molds. My uncle gave me my cousin’s photo enlarger and after he passed away and I taught myself how to develop B & W photos. I have always taken an enormous amount of photos throughout my life. My kids find this habit extremely annoying especially if we travel anywhere new. It’s almost like I can’t see the true form and color of something until I have looked at it through the camera. Once I see something this way I want to remember it forever. So this discovery of form and color through the photograph is a vital component to my practice.

5-How did you acquire your style?  My style is pretty mercurial depending what I’m into at the moment. I’m definitely influenced by accumulations, waste and ‘Low Cost Design’*. I have OCD so I am fairly compulsive and have cycling urges to collect objects that attract me. If I am unable to collect the object due to size or the situation I will photograph it and manipulate the image incorporating it into a collage (this is an easy way to make sculpture sans the heavy lifting) or re-sketch it in my notebook to capture the form and idea brought to my attention in that moment. Certain materials and objects feel harmonious together. I feel an attachment to objects, I feel emotional about them, I guess like people. My process is really dependent on materials that I am currently responding to. I continuously play out scenarios of combinations of disparate objects connecting in my head and like to work through the challenge of fitting them together especially if they are in extreme conflict to each other material wise. For instance connecting a rock, marshmallow, a beaded curtain and a feather together.  I think of it like trying on clothes or picking an outfit for the day. No matter what combination it must work together! There is an optimism manifested in the art. Every object or material can and will work together by force if necessary!

6-Have you ever come across a piece of art that you could not or did not want to stop looking at?  There are so many images that I like to revisit from my own photo collections. I often scroll through older images of waste or piles that I took decades ago. I can remember the location and how I felt when I took these photos originally. I love to revisit artist books, small art publications, zines and vintage fashion photo books/mags. The books I have on my work table right now are Dalibor Matous, JanFamily, Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955–1972, CIPO Street Puppetry Theater, Fischli and Weiss and Olga Jevric.

7-Tell us something about the art world that you want to see changed?  Being an artist and a mother can co-exist. One does not lessen the other. My creative brain is equally open and effective in comparison to any single male artist without a family to care for.

8-Why make art?  It’s the only time that I feel at peace with myself.

9-The future is _______? Purple

10-What advice would you give putative collectors?  Everything and everyone matters. Oh and also nothing and no-one matters.

11-What’s the best advice you’ve ever received in regards to your art?  You do you.

12-How do you define success?  Being alive. Making and showing work, working without limits. Supporting each of my kids as individuals so they can create meaningful lives specific to them.

13-Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration?  Everywhere is inspiring, especially on a gray day. Colors are vibrant and forms are more apparent than on contrasty, sunny days. After a rain, the LA River offers so many visual suggestions of combinations where objects from nature and city have met. Very inspiring.

14-If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table?  Dalibor Matous, Judith Scott, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Rashid Johnson, Rufino Tamayo

15-Name three things you can’t live without in your studio?  Forms, Colors, Ideas

16-How would someone find you on Social Media?  @jjennyraskk

17-Is there anything you would like to add?  “One of the unconscious assumptions is that by identifying with an object through the fiction of ownership, the apparent solidity and permanency of that material object will endow your sense of self with greater solidity and permanency…” – Eckhart Tolle

18-Please name the first thing that comes to your mind while reading the following:

Art=trA

Food=dooF

Sports=stropS

Politics=scitiloP

Poor=rooP

God=doG

Rich=hciR

Luxury=yruxuL

Sex=Picasso=ossacipxeS

Religion=noigileR