Jasmine Little creates stoneware vessels that channel ancient sculpting in imagined civilizations. Her creations highlight the constant tension between personal history and historical tradition.
Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, Little trained at Copper Mountain College, Joshua Tree, CA, the University of California, Los Angeles, CA, and Adam State University, Alamosa, CO, with her practices including sculpting, drawing, and painting. But it’s her vessels that first caught our attention. Shaped like pillars or cylindrical vases, they are carved with decorative naive iconography that seems out of place and out of time.
According to Litte, the decorative carving of these surfaces is very much dictated by the materials themselves. Using clay that is hand-mixed in California, she incorporates foreign substances that create a distinctive surface. Little then carves directly into this clay while it is still wet and inlays additional materials that include porcelain, common gravel, and clinker bricks.
“A lot of the materials are really specific to place,” she explained in an interview with Art of Choice, “the gravel embedded in the surfaces is from the yard, the porcelain is one of his formulations, and the bricks are salvaged clinker bricks that are from the immediate area and reference the history of the arts and craft movement in Pasadena.”
Her work has been exhibited both locally and internationally. Scroll down to see some highlights.
