Meet Jerry Fieldsted

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jerry Fieldsted a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jerry , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

My early childhood was full of imagination and spark. I loved pretending I had superpowers, and that I could help people with them. I remember wearing my sweatshirts with the zipper down so I could have a cape.

There was a fateful day, the first day of my third grade year in school, where this mentality had to adjust. I ran across the field to the kickball diamond, and was promptly cussed out by a new kid when I asked to play. Suddenly, I was thrust into a world of cruelty, where the worst elements of children was blossoming and using other kids as their stepping stones towards overpowering the traumas and troubles in their own lives. I had to harden. To not feel. It was a very challenging experience for the rest of my K-12 years fending off people who used me to heighten themselves. Who said some absolutely awful things for no reason beyond self-gratification, of looking down.

When I graduated from high school, I needed to let those walls down. And so, I got into a theater major in community college, and unlocked that spark once more. I was me, and I wasn’t afraid.

Unfortunately, I ended up dating and marrying a narcissist who had very different ideas for me. She tactfully cut out my other relationships with my college friends, along with straining my relationship with my parents. I was spellbound, and it took her cheating on me several years later for it to shatter. As she left my life after 12 years, I lost my job. I had just moved to a new place. I was essentially isolated.

I tell you all this to set the stage for where my resilience comes from. Most of my life, I’ve had to deal with unfavorable circumstances and challenging people who wanted to control me; to take me away from my inner power and light. In retrospect, they were harrowing times that taught me many lessons on who I don’t want to be. Since then, I have unlocked so much of my true self. I have become a student of reiki and meditation; I have accepted that I am an empath and neurodivergent; that I struggle with depression and anxiety. I need time to decompress and be away from people. And that I can all too easily give too much of myself away.

That being said, I think where I am positioned now in my 40s has given me perspective, grace, and confidence. The difficulties have rotted away to uncover newfound insight and knowledge, and I am on the right path for me to be honest, vulnerable, and authentic to that young child who thought he could save the world. That innocence and wonder bubble inside me anew, and I am so thankful I have persevered to be where I’m at now.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I have always loved to write and draw. These were tools that I built from an early age as therapy; a way to mediate the world and subvert the reality. As the pandemic settled upon the world in 2020, I was reflecting on what I had done in college and on my blogs online and realized that I had the possibility of doing more with them. I had recently met Rachel Warmath through work, and she had just published a book of her poetry and was doing open mic nights to share it with local coffeehouses and bookstore patrons interested in the arts. She gave me pointers on how to self publish, and in August of that year my first book Maya Moments (a collection of two short stories about the Ancient Maya people of Central America) went live on Amazon.

From there, I was essentially hooked! I’ve published 13 books since then on a wide variety of topics; video games, gender, photography, collections of my art, limited edition books, an illustrated poem from a Victorian poet with commentary, and extensive data-backed research. My books feature not only my words, but my art, photos, and designs, too! I love the essence of bookmaking—putting together words, images, background elements, and fonts together in eye-catching ways fulfills me on a profound level. It takes my passion to create to a cumulative level of unity and cohesion. It’s also a nice counterbalance to my career as an administrative support coordinator for the local university, where the work is more empirical and technical.

I recently published my 13th book for Wildcat Press, a fourth anthology of photographs titled Develop IV: 2024 Photographs, and have two other books planned to release by the end of January 2025, and more in development! For more on all of my books, blogging, and art, I have a portfolio site: https://jfieldsted.wordpress.com/.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Openness, persistence, and my academic background in anthropology drive much of my creativity.

Openness to me means having willingness and interest in exploring things both in and out of my comfort zone. Taking creative risks, talking about subjects that can be considered controversial, minimizing the inner voice telling me to hesitate. I have a favorite lyric from a Jimmy Eat World song, You with Me, that I use as a mantra: “fear and comfort are both one the same”. When things can start to feel comfortable and safe, it can also mean that you begin to be afraid of what isn’t. Suddenly you can find yourself terrified to let any grow or change in because it’s different from what you now perceive as “normal”, and that’s not a way to live. Humans are meant to evolve and blossom. Normalcy is overrated, anyway, haha.

Persistence is a trait I am very thankful I carry. I don’t give up if something really burns inside of me. I want to see things through if they are challenging, if I hit a roadblock, or there’s limitations holding me back. I do attribute this to the years of struggle I’ve had fighting off narcissistic energy…a degree of not taking what others say or do as gospel. I am not defined by what others think. And that’s truly been an accomplishment to reach that point.

I have a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, and it’s greatly affected the way I perceive the world. In sociocultural anthropology, the intention is to see a person and their culture not in direct comparison to my own, but to appreciate and celebrate what makes it distinct. To minimize internal biases and elevate diversity, equity, and inclusion. To embrace and engage with what is “unknown” to you and make it “known.” This has greatly influenced me and my work.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

2024 has been a fascinating year. Since 2020, I have published three books a year consistently, but I have undergone several life-changing experiences the last year:
1) Massive changes in my work environment led to an onset of depression and apathy about my creativity. When an opportunity to move into a new office and a new team appeared in August, I took it without hesitation and now find myself in the best singular work climate I’ve ever worked in. I have an incredible set of co-workers who have welcomed me in so warmly and my joining the office has helped reduce stress and overwork, and I feel so grateful I’m now where I’m at.
2) I’ve had a perfectionist streak inside me since I was in high school, where getting good grades was rewarded and poor grades felt wrong. Being able to reduce my dependence on expectations and let mistakes be learning opportunities has been a huge help, but my prior department had begun to emphasize “we are a model for the campus, so everything we do should adhere to perfection”…which goes directly against that personal vision for myself! Another reason I am so appreciative of my new office environment; mistakes are an accepted and expected element of the work I do, and it actually helps me perform better knowing I can loosen up.
3) Lastly, I’ve felt more personally invested in my artistic self the past year, and it shows in the art and photos I’m creating. My drawing skills are rising to the pinnacle of my many years of sketching, backed by increased knowledge and experimentation in digital coloring and techniques. My photographer’s eye is sharper than ever, too, bringing a newfound enthusiasm to each shot I take, and much more quickly, too. Capturing a memorable photo requires flexibility and openness to take a shot at any moment, and I feel increasingly free to switch that on as something comes into view.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

First and Frequent Fantasy cover art and Isolate Volume 1 coloring: Gene Dixon
The Best of LVLS+ Volume 1 model: Kathy Kinsey-Whitney
All other credits: Jerry Fieldsted

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