Artists to Watch | Jessie Rasche

The art of connection

Jessie Rasche, Green Farm, oil, 11 x 14.

South Dakota artist Jessie Rasche’s beloved subjects—the landscape, animals, and people of the Midwest—could appear pedestrian under another’s hand. Rasche, however, skillfully infuses them with a sense of connection between people and the land, between animals, and between individuals. Her abstract brushwork and harmonious limited palette calm the weary soul.

Beyond those connections, “I want people to feel comforted and soothed when they look at my work,” she says. That sentiment is voiced by collectors, patrons at her solo exhibitions, and visitors and patients at the Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, SD, where her four 4-by-6-foot nature scenes provide a needed respite. Regardless of subject, Rasche says she loves “the combination of well-crafted realism, abstraction, and ambiguity. It’s like working a puzzle, trying to find the balance.” Focused dedication to mark-making, composition, and color are keys to her success, and subjects she helps other artists explore through her painting workshops.

Rasche’s own creative inspiration can be traced to her mother, papier-mâché artist Jonni Good; mentor and master printmaker Gordon Gilkey; modern-day impressionist Carolyn Anderson; and the father of Impressionism Claude Monet. OPENING, her nod to his water lilies, which she painted at a Giverny-inspired garden in Omaha, NE, received an award at the wet-paint competition that was part of the 22nd Annual American Impressionist Society National Juried Exhibition.

Rasche attended the Pacific Northwest College of Art—“I didn’t even think about other options,” she says—and later worked as a scientific and medical illustrator at the University of Washington and as a media developer at Microsoft. But fine art’s siren song beckoned, and she heeded its call 15 years ago. A move to Brookings, SD, almost a decade ago redirected her work from mother-and-child portraiture to animals in wide-open landscapes, as seen in GREEN FARM, which was juried into the fifth annual AIS Impressions: Small Works Showcase.

That focus continues with the Artist Career Development Grant she received from the South Dakota Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts for 2021-22. “My goal is to create a body of work that showcases the animal life and landscapes across this diverse state,” Rasche says enthusiastically, “and, within the next few years, to venture farther to capture even more of the Midwestern landscape.” —Beth Williams

representation
Shain Gallery, Charlotte, NC; South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings, SD; Art Resources Gallery, Minneapolis, MN; www.jessierasche.com.

This story appeared in the February/March 2022 issue of Southwest Art magazine.