We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jasmine Dillavou a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jasmine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

Being a full time artist has always meant I was going to be working 100 jobs at once. When I am not performing or showcasing, I am working as a studio assistant. I am curating. I am sitting on boards. I am volunteering. I am community organizing. I am documenting. I am teaching. It is pretty rare that I find myself bored these days. At that, there is always a sense of uncertainty that comes with this lifestyle. It comes with no promise of success. There is no normal schedule. There is not a lot to rely on. I sometimes find myself with a bit of jealousy of those around me who chose a more straightforward route. I wish I always knew what was next like the certainty of a 9-5 often grants. But I also recognize that I have one short and precious life and, thus far, it has been filled with so much creative whimsy-so much joy-so much unexpected adventure. I get to make art in my community. That is a privilege and a gift and not one I will ever take lightly. I get to be vulnerable and cringe and free because of this life choice. So, while it is not financially the easiest path, I cannot imagine my life in any other way. I have ownership over this vessel and how it will move through the world and how it will be seen and how it will accept the joys and the downfalls it experiences. Like one big dance.

Jasmine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I began my professional art career in 2016 right out of academia. I became deeply involved in the COS art scene and found plenty of holes that needed to be filled. My passion, at first, was in storytelling through assemblage and layered mixed-media. While working with these materials brought me a lot of joy, I still was not reaching the audience and layer of vulnerability I thought I could be.
Performance and theater were already in my toolbelt over years of competitive poetry slam and acting. I never really saw those as part of my art practice though, they were hobbies. Still, I found myself tip toing back to them in my desire to further my art into the stage. Performance art was a deep plunge from theater arts as it required so much more honesty and improvision and risk. Regardless, I stepped into the performance art realm in 2017 all ablaze with discomfort and excitement and never really turned back.
I am proud of my performances. They allow me to express something beyond the canvas that is messier and hungrier.
I can really let it go when I am in a storytelling experience.
Sometimes they are prop-heavy theatrics, sometimes it is just movement work. Always it is in collaboration with the audience and reflective of their feelings and interpretations.

Storytelling is one of the oldest art forms on Earth. It is how we make human connection, it is how we learn diverse perspectives and it how we are called to civic engagement and social justice. It is a big job yet it often is not seen as an art form at all.
When people book storytelling or performance art experiences in their space, they are welcoming in a vital force for creative democracy. They are challenging the current cultural data. They are risking the bored comfort of our current climate and willing to welcome in new ideas. This is when the potential for empathy expands. This where our view of the arts expand. It is like guiding magic into a room.

If I get to be part of something like that over the course of my career in the arts, then I am really proud of myself.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

One mission I have been passionate about along my creative journey is that collaboration is key. We can’t do this alone nor should we. Artists must work together and find ways to uplift and strengthen one another. There is not a moment of creative success I can fully claim as my own because I have always had other artists to lean on for critique, for support, for guidance. We were never meant to create in a vacuum. We need to show up and support one another if we are truly going to make work that matters in this world.
The best thing I ever did in college in was start smoking cigarettes, terrible I know. But it gave me a reason to leave class and talk about art with my cohorts. It gave us time away to really learn from one another. We spent so much more time discussing ideas and getting to know each other because we had that time.
I want to see more young artists working in collectives. I want them to volunteer and show up and look up and learn from each other and get off the internet. I want us to relay on each other for ideas and assistance and ask for help. That is my highest goal in the end.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part about being a creative is getting to be part of what feels like a secret society of weirdos. We are imbedded in this world of people who think so differently and see reality so differently. I get to ask questions of cohorts that are so much smarter than me. I get to relay on them. I am surrounded by chefs, poets, designers, dancers, writers, movie buffs. I don’t know a single person in my life that is boring. WHAT A TREAT!
This is a tough world to be in. It has no promise of success, it makes no money, more often than not, and you never know if you are doing it right. But, it is also a world built of people who are looking at the world with curiosity and empathy like you wouldn’t believe.
That is a gift I would never take for granted.
To be surrounded my magical little freaks trying to relay their perspectives to the world for the sake of vulnerability.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jasminedillavou.com
• Instagram: jasminerunswithscissors
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtByJasmineDillavou
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasmineDillavouArt

Image Credits

Robert Gray (black and white photo only)