Artist Spotlight: Jenna Michele

About Jenna

"All I have ever wanted to be was an artist. I started out painting, then I navigated myself into photography and became an over 30 times published photographer. However life happened and I ended up getting a concussion in 2017 and my world completely changed. My traumatic brain injury led to nerve damage and post concussional syndrome which is still with me til this day but thankfully not as bad. My TBI caused me to dramatically slow down, even turning my head too fast would cause a 6 day migraine. My childhood friend was taking a life sculpture class at the time at El Camino College and invited me to go with her one night and sit and play with clay. It was such an amazing experience, I had no idea this was a thing that people could do. She gave me a bag of clay and I went home and made a bust of Neferti. The rest of my story is still being written I suppose."

Q: What inspires your work or keeps you excited in the studio?

A: "Everything and everything inspires me. If I see the wind blowing leaves on a tree or a butterfly landing on a flower, my mind instantly goes into," I WANT TO MAKE THAT!" My heart really belongs to making trees and the human body but I am known for my very verbal and direct mugs. What inspires my mugs is my ADHD. My mind is constantly moving and thinking of a million different things at once and I just simply make a list of the best things I think of and slap it on a mug. I am very fortunate that people like them."

Q: What is your favorite AMACO product and why?

A: "I have 3 I CANNOT live without. Palladium, Ultra Black Underglaze, and Ancient Copper! I use ultra black underglaze on ALL of my mug lettering. Every. Single. Mug. Palladium I love because it is just soooooooooooo good! It really will come out like a mirror if you use the correct amount of layers and ancient copper. I mean c'mon, it will do this sort of crystallize thing sometimes, and it is my current obsession."

Q: Any advice you'd give to someone just starting out with clay?

A: "I would would say not to go into it trying to make something perfect. We are not perfect beings, and the beauty of handmade is the fact that it is HAND MADE. You are literally about to turn dirt into art, ENJOY THAT! Its such a beautiful process that involves all the elements, earth, water, air and fire. There's magic in that don't ruin it with something as mundane as perfection."