Jasmina Charleston Creative
I was born in 1978 and am from Vancouver BC. My father is from Bosnia and my mother is from Honduras. As immigrants to Canada, they gave me a unique perspective in how I grew up. We spoke English, Bosnian and Spanish at home in my younger years.
My first love (besides animals) was putting pencil to paper. There were a lot of detailed stories I had in my mind as a shy child, as I had a flourishing imagination. I had to share my art with the world. It’s taken many years to build the confidence to do so!
I draw my art with ink and then scan the drawings so I can digitize them on Adobe Illustrator. In Illustrator I can manipulate the colours, opacity, and scale. I’ve been a graphic designer for the past 20 years, so in this medium of art I combine my digital knowledge with my fine art understanding from my years at Emily Carr University.
A large part of my artwork is based off observations in nature since I enjoy being outdoors. Flora and Fauna are my muses. A lot of my drawings are of birds, insects and other animals. I also really love to draw florals, trees and plants.
I am also starting new art pieces that are exploring themes of identity. These are more deeply personal, and I plan to showcase them in a couple of art exhibitions later this year. I only started seriously pursuing art as a career at the end of 2023, so I am still very green, however despite that I am pushing myself out of my comfort zone and trying new and challenging endeavours.
My art has been chosen to be part of a couple different project this year. My “Whisper of the Wings” series, along with an image of a Sandhill Crane, have been chosen to beautify a utility box in the City of Surrey. A wrap of my imagery will go over the utility box in the City’s effort to showcase artists in all corners of the area. My Mosaic Tree image was also chosen to be part of a project that will showcase art on doors of businesses in the Broadway Art District in Saskatoon. I hope to be part of more projects like these in the future. I find it extremely humbling and exciting to have my art as part of a city’s landscape.
I am also planning to collaborate with a local clothing designer by adding my digital art to their fabrics later this year. In a similar vein, I have also been creating products on which I print my art – stationery, fabric, and other items – and I sell these items at local artisan markets as well as local curated artisan shops. Since my art is mostly digital, I have a myriad of options to output my art, and the possibilities are endless and thrilling. I really want to have my art be in the world in many different contexts – whether it be on someone’ desk as a calendar, their wall as a print, in an art gallery or in the city landscape.
