Life & Work with Jasmine Drake of Knightdale, North Carolina

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmine Drake

Hi Jasmine , so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in a small country town called Rocky Mount in North Carolina. Since the age of 6, I was blown away by what life had to offer. At this age, I had already started learning how to cook various foods & would cook for my older brothers as well as friends throughout the neighborhood. In my eyes, all types of art are intermingled together to create some of the most beautiful creations on earth. This brought me to love all the things I create equally. Just like I was cooking at this age, I was drawing, finding my own style in fashion, & falling in love with music especially instruments like the Alto Saxophone. I have always believed to create things that I love first, and the people who resonate with it will follow naturally.

I Graduated at The Art Institute of Virginia Beach in Virginia Beach, VA with my Bachelors in Culinary Arts Management in 2017. The main purpose of going was to learn how to fix mine as well as others health & diet by knowing the benefits of ingredients & spices we use in our everyday cooking. Even while studying & gaining experience within the culinary world in Country Clubs, 4-Star Hotels, Nursing Homes, & Childcare, I didn’t stop putting growth within my other art regardless of how people only wanted me to stick to one type of profession. Living in Virginia for 4 years opened my eyes up to opportunities & a mindset I would have never been introduced to if I would have never left my city. In 2019 I was excited to be the first set of people to attend Something In The Water Festival in Virginia Beach being the first big festival in Virginia Beach since the Greek Festival. This as well as Camp Flog Gnaw Festival at Dodger’s Stadium in California showed me how much people were digging my fashion sense & calm but eccentric personality urging me to continue to create & share all of my arts instead of holding it to myself while learning how much I enjoy traveling with Camp Flog Gnaw being my second time visiting the West Coast.

In 2020 I was a Featured artist for my illustrations I had been posting online since 2016 at the RAW Artist Showcase at The Ritz here in Raleigh putting fuel to the fire since I am a self taught artist learning little tips from friends in college on how I need to keep my unique art style. This art style is a melting pot of influences mainly coming from early 60’s-70’s interior designs & color schemes mixed with older American Layouts in cartoons & earlier 80’s anime. One year later in 2021 I was a part of The Sketchbook Project: Volume 18 at Brooklyn Arts Library in New York having my first book, Happy To “BE” with 19 illustrations inside being the first time I ever got any of my artwork within a Library & Museum open to the public till this day. Within the same year, I co-hosted & was also featured in L.E. Showcase in Goldsboro North Carolina bringing in different Black Artists from the area, Rocky Mount, Virginia Beach, & Norfolk VA as well. This showcase was my first time presenting two of my favorite Acrylic Pieces to date called “Aboveee and Belowww” stepping out of my comfort zone to change up my regular colorful schemes into a dark but vibrant take on a simple concept with phenomenal details the more you looked into it.

Since then, I never stopped showing love to all the things that bring me joy while slowly getting them organized for the public to enjoy. This year, I created 3 event pieces in dedication to “The Week Of The Child” which is an event within childcare that I was honored to be asked to be a part of even though I was on the culinary aspect instead of being a teacher. Two of these pieces were Abstract being the first two Abstract Paintings I have ever done. These paintings were auctioned off for this event with one of the Abstract Paintings I named “Otherworldly” being the second highest bidding of the event. The best thing about my life that I always encourage people about it is that I do not have a big fan base! All of these amazing opportunities came from hard work as well as me staying true to my authentic self while staying consistent with creating. Even though I am only 28, I have cooked for thousands of people, had amazing conversations to people all around the world, cooked / given praises for my creations by celebrities, & I am the first in my family to go to college.

These things is what makes my soul smile and have meaning every time I breathe. The only one who can hold you back from greatness is yourself.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I truly believe that the greatness to any path is never smooth by one bit. I would describe my path not even being created! Having to get my hands & feet into the dirt digging constantly so I will be able to walk on this path step by step. The same age I started cooking, I had a horrible bike accident that almost took my life. This accident leaves me with horrible migraines that lead me to high fevers, vomiting & bed ridden majority of my childhood. Even till this day, I am still getting surgery on & off to fix what happened with my mouth / jawline. Growing up, seeing my parents struggle just to keep a roof over our heads, this kept my mindset into working with what I got.

From 8 years old until mid teens, I wore a lot of hand me downs from my brothers and nothing I wore was name brand because we would not even dare to ask for these type of things. Going into High school, it was a battle to keep secret my struggles with homelessness living with a friend or my great grandmother while constantly being bullied & picked on for what I would wear or what I could not afford for basic supplies in school. Even though I was going through all of this in school, I NEVER told anyone not even the closest friends and the ones who had a hunch I am truly thankful they did not ask me about it. I remember my Junior year eating ramen noodles & boiled hot dogs for 3 months straight! I didn’t start back eating noodles or hotdogs until 3 years later.

Even through all of these issues, I never cared much about the bulling because my mindset saw it as at least I am still alive & breathing. I missed a bunch of days out of school from my weak immune system from the accident & had to do the homework by laptop emailing and asking teachers to send work months in advance so I can keep up with the classes which would happen even through college. My health wasn’t the best, but the lowest I ever got in a class was a C & my final year in College I got straight A’s & was put on the Deans list. Majority of my struggles, I feel better not to go too much into detail because I can not stand the look of sadness I see whenever I tell anyone just a little bit of what I go through. To be honest, I think it is best to keep it this way, not only for me, but for my family because we have endured soo much.

One of my older brothers Lance passed a few years back with 3 others in a horrible car accident & we had just talked a week before it happened. I was the first to hear the news & my heart couldn’t bare to tell my mother, so I just texted my father the information & told him to look into it. I know my brother would be soo proud of me & everything i’ve done so far. He was only 26 when he passed & the rest of my family struggles I prefer not to talk about because it is just too much on my heart.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Mainly when I am not cheffing it up, majority of people know me as Dreadful Desire. From cooking, to illustrating, to freelance modeling I tend to show how I have always been raw and uncut underneath this pen name. I specialize in illustrations with my main & favorite medium being alcoholic markers. Using calm but colorful schemes & line work on random concepts, studies, & creating a little world for many original characters that I have in my archive. When it comes to me being proud of anything, I would not be able to choose anything in particular besides my energy! The feeling I get after I talk with anyone & how they compliment how understanding or open minded I am towards anything in life is what makes me proud because for sooo many years I stayed to myself while pushing my emotions & thoughts inside. I loved to be myself but you can’t make people understand why you are who you are truly unless you show them your creations to help better understand what words can not express.

The biggest thing that sets me apart from others is a mixture of my understanding because of all the arts I dabble into. Unless you meet other multi talented people, a big chunk of the world doesn’t understand that some of the biggest creations known for generations took a team of people with different talents. Even though I look young and a lot of the things I create have a child like energy to them, whenever I speak to anybody, I feel like the 12 years of culinary / hospitality comes out, being able to relate & blow people away by what knowledge I have in this dome piece. I was taught that reading is fundamental & that knowledge is power.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
No matter what anyone tells you, ALWAYS create things that you like first. This keeps your originality grounded so that you can sew your seeds correctly. The more you grow and water your crafts, you will be blown away by your garden. Also remember that usually the first people who fall in love with your creations will usually be strangers first! my first main audience of supporters were not from my family or hometown, they came from places like: Japan, Egypt, Alaska, & South Africa. Keep creating because you never know who is watching.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/dreadful_desire
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dreadful_desire
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DreadfulDesire
• Twitter: https://x.com/DesireDreadful
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DreadfulDesire
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/dreadfuldesire