Life & Work with Jenna Michele

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenna Michele.

Hi Jenna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I got my introduction to clay when my friend invited me to sit in on one of her sculpture classes in 2018. I was having a hard time dealing with my TBI, and playing with clay definitely helped me. For some reason I never made the time to take a class myself, I think maybe I was just scared. When my grandpa died I’m 2021, it really put things into perspective for me and made me realize what is important. Shortly after his passing, I quit my job and decided to take a wheel-throwing class at a Community College. Fast forward to 2 years later, I got scouted by the College of the Arts Dean of Cal State Long Beach while vending on a corner in Long Beach to join their ceramics program!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I made a decision after the haze of my grandpa’s death stopped lingering so heavily over my life that I was going to follow the path that was set for me. As it has not been all sunshine and daisies, it has definitely been the hardest and easiest journey I have been on thus far in my life. Minus the regular struggles on having a business and being able to grow it successfully, every door I have faced so far has been wide open for me to step through.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Hmm, I would hope that I am known for my chain-linked vases with faces, but my most popular sellers are mugs. I end up making a lot more mugs than chain-linked vases because the price point on those is higher and the mugs sell the fastest. As much as I love making things as a living, I still have four cats to feed and care for lol. If I am able to attend Cal State Long Beach’s Art Department, I will be working on larger-scale vases with faces and chain links. I currently don’t have the space at my home to make something as large as I would like. As I have said in my past interviews, I think the only thing that sets me apart from anyone is my drive to create. I just love making things with my hands and as long as I am blessed enough to do so I will.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Oh, that’s a good question, I try to be as open as possible, so I’m not sure what would be surprising; speaking of work, I can throw a mug in about 2 minutes or less, the faces I sculpt take me about 20 solid minutes to do. When my friends come over for our paint nights, they make me cook LOL. My cat Orion lays under my wheel every time I throw and my other cat Astrid steals my wire tool.

As a personal fact that might be surprising is that I have never felt connected to my life until I found clay. I love my babies, and I would do anything for them, but they taught me about unconditional love for something else, and doing ceramics as weird as it sounds, taught me unconditional love for myself. Clay is very temperamental, some ceramists will tell you that you need to make the clay do what you want it to, and I tend to disagree as I am also temperamental. I feel like I connect with the clay that way (I promise you it’s a thing).

My whole life, everyone tried to beat me into submission to make me be what they felt was “better” but it’s really not up to anyone except me. I decided what kind of human I wanted to be, and the more people would try to beat my resilience out of me, the more I did the opposite of what they wanted. The clay is the same way, I believe that’s how you end up having a “bad throwing day.” In two years of throwing, I have had three “bad throwing days” because I was trying to force the clay into what I wanted instead of working with the clay. Which is exactly how I live my life; I will work with you, but you cannot force me into anything I don’t want to do. Throwing and understanding the clay really helped me learn about myself as well as understand the characteristics that I was taught were so horrible about myself. Clay taught me how to love myself.

Pricing:

• Mugs range from $45-$70
• Bowls range from $25-$45
• Vases with Faces range from $120-$500
• Collapsed Vases range from $40-$180

Contact Info:

• Website: www.photojenicart.co
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/photojenicart
• Other: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-me-creat-a-home-ceramic-studio?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_content=undefined&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer&utm_term=undefined