We recently connected with Jas Turk and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jas thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

One of the biggest risks that I have ever taken was choosing to share my art with the world. It can be such a hard thing to do, and it can feel perilous. Enacting and engaging in the vulnerability that is required to share your art, and to share yourself with the world can feel scary, and I think that this is often a process that is easily overlooked. People usually see your end product, but are unaware of the multitude of thoughts, considerations, and/or positionings that may go into that production.

For many, whether you are creating or viewing art, it can be such a personalized activity. From the artist’s perspective, your art is your innermost intimate thoughts and feelings and by sharing them publicly, you are letting your guard down and allowing the masses into your world. From the viewer’s perspective, you are interpreting images and messaging, and making them your own (as you relate what you see in the artwork, to your own life), which is also a vulnerable act. What I found out though by being a bold and risky creator, who worked up the courage to share and get vulnerable with the world by way of visibility was that there was commonality and community out there for me. There were people waiting to connect and bond over a shared passion for creativity; whether they too were an artist or if they were a viewer, I was led towards others who appreciated creativity, just like me.

What I learned through taking this risk was that “putting yourself out there” was and continues to be an important process that can lead to a positive impact on not just yourself, but also on others who are out there looking for people to build community with. Through bonding over the shared values and storytelling aspects that are inevitably explored through art, my community was deepened. Additionally, I learned that if you can push your fears aside, risk can be full of possibility and connectivity. The infamous collage and multi-media artist Romare Bearden once said, “There are roads out of the secret place within us which we must all move as we go to touch others”, and this is something that I now take to heart when thinking about moving forward and through risk.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For folks who may not have read about me before or been introduced to my work, my name is Jas Turk (www.jasturk.com) and I am a Black, queer self-taught Collage Artist and Cultural Sustainability Professional who received their Master of Arts in Cultural Sustainability from Goucher College in 2017. I am heavily energized through creative ideation, generation, and storytelling, and this is something that shows throughout my artwork and creative direction endeavors. I believe that because of my personal intersectionality’s and experiences, as well as my background in cultural sustainability and creative direction—I cannot help but to aim to address social issues and inequities throughout my creative practice. Through the use of collage and historical cultural archives, I aim to educate others by prompting thought provocation and the exploration of possibility models as effective methods towards community sustainability, advocacy, and change.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

In my view, one of the largest things that society can do to best support artists and creatives is to engage with us! Support us through engagement, recommendations, patronage, and/or simply sharing a couple of kind words. As I mentioned previously, art can be both incredibly personal AND communal. Knowing and understanding how a piece that I created spoke to someone else is very motivating. While I like to think that I create for myself, I also create for my community and to know that my work is received means the world.

Furthermore, tell a friend about us and tell them to tell two more. The reality is that artists need each other, and we need you. A large part of artistry is rooted in community and connection. Writer, and Nobel & Pulitzer Prize Winner Toni Morrison once said that “Art takes us and makes us take a journey beyond price, beyond cost, into bearing witness to the world as it is and as it should be. Art invites us to know beauty and to solicit it, summon it, from even the most tragic of circumstances.” Support us through shared opportunities, camaraderie, collecting, and networking—and most importantly, support us through soliciting and summoning beauty with us, in this world.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist and a creative person is being led by curiosity. I have found that by being a curious person, I tend to wind up surrounded by the most authentic and caring communities. I am positioned sometimes with opportunities to partake in exciting and new ventures, and to explore and create within exciting and new spaces—and I love that! As an artist, as I lean into the “who, what, when, where, and how” of things, I find myself constantly learning new tidbits about different cultures, inspirations, and influences, and I feel that those exposures enrich me. I have met so many people who I otherwise may not have met throughout my lifetime, who have shared and/or overlapped interests, and this kinship has been so supportive and pivotal in my own development and conceptualization of what is means to be an artist. I am constantly pushed outside of my comfort zone as I examine my surroundings, communities, and opportunities, those examinations bring me closer to myself and closer to my being. I am grateful for this unique journey of self-introspection.

Something else cool that I gain by way of my artwork and creative processes are the perspectives that I gain from constantly peering back and forth through history. As I thumb through historical and cultural archives for my collages, I am afforded an opportunity to really compare the present and the past. I get a unique chance to then utilize what I see in history to explore social issues in the present, and to potentially education or inform others through my art. Often times I find a sort of solace in knowing that historically we’ve experienced many difficult things, and yet, and still, we persevere and prevail. We continue to make it through and continue to leverage art and archiving as a means to make life better.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jasturk.com
• Instagram: @jasturk.creates