Jasmine Thomas-Girvan

Jasmine Thomas-Girvan


BIOGRAPHY
Jasmine Thomas-Girvan was born in Jamaica. She attended the Parsons School of Design in New York, where she received a BFA in Jewelry and Textile Design. Whilst at Parson’s Jasmine was awarded the Tiffany Honour Award for Excellence. Later she received a Prime Minister’s Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Jamaica, and in 1996 she was the recipient of a Commonwealth Foundation Arts award. She was the recipient of the 2012 Aaron Matalon Award of the National Gallery of Jamaica as the artist who made the most outstanding contribution to the National Biennial Exhibition. Jasmine has also made a number of public commissions, one of which was presented to the Queen of England . Jasmine’s work has been exhibited in the USA, Jamaica, Trinidad, Venezuela and Mexico, and featured in Accessories Magazine, Skywritings, Shabeau and Caribbean Beat. Jasmine lives and works in Trinidad, West Indies.

ARTIST STATEMENT
For me, the process is intuitive. It begins to take shape through sketches that might immediately be made into a preliminary model, or sit and hibernate on a shelf as a mystery for a year or two then suddenly spring to life with vigour and crystallise in a flash. My pieces echo their organic origins. I am intrigued by the poetry in Nature and attempt to capture the elemental and ephemeral beauty and rhythms thriving in the organic world. I have always regarded Nature as a teacher and guide that constantly sharpens my senses.

The process may begin with a walk by the Queen’s Park Savannah; watching the tide in Carriacou; the thunderous cascade of Kaieteur Falls; imagining what lies beneath those sleeping volcanoes in Dominica; stumbling over a mountain of bodi in the market; inhaling tassa in St James, or simply flirting with hummingbirds as they hover over coffee blossoms in the Blue Mountains. The sources of my inspiration are as diverse and rich as the land we are privileged to walk on and its people: myths, architecture, literature, food, fashion, moonfire, birdsongs, radiowaves and even the way feathers mysteriously arrive carried on the wind.

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