Jazmin was a Mexican artist who settled in the UK and was a Dorset resident until her untimely death in 2021. She was an established book illustrator and worked in many media including oil painting, printmaking and ceramic art. Her original, thoughtful and humorous prints are sure to raise a smile.
Jazmin was born in 1971 in Guadalajara, Mexico, daughter of the famous political cartoonist Joaquin Velasco and niece of two distinguished masked wrestlers, 'El Apolo' and 'El Diablo Velasco', thus establishing from the beginning a dual approach to life, the artist and the warrior. She became an accomplished martial artist, a black belt practitioner and teacher who saw art and martial art as two aspects of the same thing, the improvement of oneself and the world around us.
By the age of 18 she was working as a cartoonist at a national newspaper, studied graphic design and illustration and moved to Mexico City where in time she established herself as one of the best-known book illustrators in the country. She moved to London in the year 2000 where she continued her illustration work with publishers in Mexico, the USA and the UK and began to settle into her new home. She took up printmaking, quickly gaining a reputation for her original and thoughtful work, and joined the Society of Wood Engravers in 2013.
Jazmin moved to Dorset later that year, established a busy ceramic studio and continued with her printmaking and martial arts classes. Tragically Jazmin died in 2021. For those who were fortunate enough to know her will cherish her memory as a true example of how an artist should live.