Meet Jenny RASK | Visual Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jenny RASK and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jenny, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
After working as a younger motion graphics designer in different larger companies and owning a small company with close friends, I realized that I really liked making creative decisions on my own and being the sole contributor to making work. Working as a visual artist, the clients typically are art viewers and purchase work after it is created, but don’t participate in the art making process.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art practice is intuitive, I attempt to present common objects in an obscure way in order to enhance perception of the familiar. This involves not only the repurposing of material, but deeper explorations into the meanings of material: its embodiment of entropy, and its inherent temporality. My work has an informal quality. Makeshift building produces sculpture that is fragile and precarious–suggesting the insecurity, vulnerability, and uncertainty intrinsic to the human condition and the environment. This self-taught way of making has been a common thread in my life and has help shape my sensibilities and how I see the world.

My first job out of college was working as assistant at an infomercial company, called Tyee Productions in Portland, Oregon. They created the first Infomercial for Soloflex. I worked my way into graphic design by building the company’s informercial presentations and other small designs jobs where needed. I had an introduction to graphics at college in the Journalism school as our computer lab had 3 first generation Macintosh classics. I was able to teach myself Pagemaker and Freehand (when hard drives had only had 40MB of RAM) Tyee moved me to their post-production company, Downstream, once they saw I had an aptitude for graphics. I worked tirelessly at learning computers, software, video tape machines and digital systems. I was a young workhorse frequently pulling all nighters to help with post production and rotoscoping client projects on an SGI computer with deadlines looming. After winning a design award at the age of 21, I moved to New York City, where I continued to work as a motion graphics designer/director at MTV branding the station, establishing myself in this field and eventually opening a small branding company called “Thingy” with 2 friends. Living in NYC in the ‘90s had a profound impact on my work, cultivating my eye and shaping me. Trash piles on my daily walk to work birthed a deep fascination—an appreciation for the subtle beauty found in discarded objects and their forms. Like many, living in NYC during 9/11 deeply affected my career and life. Work slowed down for while and my priorities changed. My partner and I started a family and then moved to LA from NYC for his career when our first child was one. This move was extremely disorienting creatively for me. I felt like I had lost my identity. I not only longed for my life as a 20 year old, but also for my art community and friends that knew me well and what I had accomplished. While searching for a creative community to fit into while raising my 3 kids, I was compelled to create differently then when I was a graphic designer. I discovered beauty in the mundane rituals of domestic life, photo documenting piles of laundry that had accumulated, dirty dishes and messes. I noticed unusual forms and attractive color arrangements presented to me in the clutter and chaos of my daily life. Arranging compositions with objects by color and texture from my immediate surroundings had become a part of my art practice and continues to be part of my process today. Sheila Hicks work from a book lead to an infatuation with textiles. I joined a small weaving community in North Hollywood lead by an incredible Saori instructor, Fumi Omiya, who had encouraged me to try weaving on a loom after I participated in a one day workshop. Weekly beautiful textural weavings were made and stories were shared in this intimate studio of 8 amazing women from diverse backgrounds while working on a variety of different sized looms. Inspired, I decided to rent a small studio space of my own where I could evolve my art practice. My studio happened to be next to fiber artist and activist, Tanya Aguiñiga. I learned so much from her as an informal mentor, confident and close friend. She taught me freeform weaving techniques, about materials, processes and art activism and inclusivity that she had been developing over the span of her career. She ingrained in me that motherhood, womanhood and ‘nurtury’ is essential to making and holds an integral, valuable place in the art world. That women who have children belong and have every right to participate alongside artists who are solely focused on their art practice. Our friendship continues to be incredibly meaningful, her insight and perspective has left an everlasting impression on me. Her encouragement and support of my art practice motivated me to keep making and pursue an MFA in sculpture while raising my kids. I had already had my first solo show in LA at The Lodge at the time and had been working on a body of soft sculpture work, but felt that going back to school would immerse me further with like minded artists at this stage of art making. So much more life has happened since getting my Masters degree. Covid wiped my Thesis show out, a separation from my kids father, and getting back into the work force after 16 years while raising my three, incredible almost adult children who I couldn’t be more proud of. I am super grateful for the unique path I have carved out for myself despite the difficulties. I have been able to hold onto an inexplicable optimism through my life and I feel that my art practice is an extension of that. Currently I continue to learn through the meaningful work I am a part of at Tierra del Sol in their incredible art program for adult artists with developmental disabilities. I continue to make and show my own work, most recently at the incredible artist Elliott Hundley’s studio gallery in DTLA, and raise my youngest daughter while my oldest kids are in college.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
A fun weekend in LA for me would be:

Friday am eating a bite at Honey Hi in Echo Park, popping down to DTLA and taking photos of giant piles of fabrics and textiles at John Tex & Trim Closeouts then popping over to little Tokyo, perusing the Little Tokyo Market Place eating lunch at Oomasa and or Sticky Rice in Grand Central Market. Then heading over to Hauser and Wirth to check out their shows, grabbing a seasonal Ice cream at Salt and Straw on the way to check out the latest The Box exhibition. Maybe a quick bite at Marouch for dinner before going to an evening concert at the Hollywood Bowl?

Saturday early morning hike in Griffith Park and then stopping for breakfast at All Time on Hillhurst st., grab an iced Nola from Blue Bottle Coffee, then gallery hop to The Pit, GGLA, Murmurs, Night Gallery, Wilding Cran, NicoDim, Commonwealth and Council, The Lodge, Marta, food and drinks at El Condor in Silver Lake, enjoy some music and dance at Zebulon.

Sunday Hot Yoga at Y7 and then head to Just What I Kneaded for Mocha and Scone, walk down to the LA River and look for river digested trash to use in my work. Pop over to the Rose Bowl Flea and wander around (or Hike the Gabrielino Trail JPL Alta Dena). Have a very late lunch at Kitchen Mouse. Drinks at Capri Club?

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The definition of success for me (besides my own children growing up happy and healthy) is holding onto my authenticity, staying true to my quirky sensibility and continuing to practice art. My parents have played a huge part in encouraging me to keep making and pursuing my interests even when there is limited financial gain. They are both eternal optimists and enthusiasts in almost any situation. My mom really has always supported me emotionally and has always made me feel like I have something special to contribute even when I am feeling extremely uncertain.

Website: www.jennyrask.com

Instagram: @jjennyraskk

Linkedin: Jenny Rask

Image Credits
Solo show photos courtesy of The Lodge, Los Angeles