Meet Jenna Michele

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jenna Michele. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jenna, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?

I think this is a very great question and topic that definitely needs to be spoken about more. When you feel burnt out when it comes to art its your body just needing a break and instead of trying to force yourself… just rest! If it takes a a day, a week, or even 6 months.. just reset. There is such a huge stigma on having to rush and push do thing on everyone else’s timeline but you are the only one who needs to live with YOU and what goes on in your mind! Honestly I am at the point now where I just know myself. I dont force anything because when I force anything it always comes out terribly. I just redirect. If I’m tired of throwing, I will paint and if im tired of painting I binge watch the entire season of sex and city and play with my cats until im ready to go back at it. I allow my mind and my body to do what it needs and I find it makes me happier.

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?

Ever since I was a child all I ever wanted to be was an artist. I just loved the idea of creating. I always found myself staring at the sky, trees and flowers just reveling in how amazingly beautiful nature was and I wanted to recreate it. I started painting when I was about 4 and then photography when I was 9. I felt more confident about showing my photography because I felt like my paintings were not as good as rhey could be and so I hoarded them for years. When I was 30 I tried my hand my pottery and that is where I found the most success. I love everything about pottery it has been the most transcending time of my life. My brain does not operate the way most peoples brains do. I think in 3D, I see everything in my head the same way you see things right in front of you. So pottery for me came very easily. I can sculpt a face in 20 minutes but if you ask me to draw me a face you will get stick figures lol. It feels like I blinked and now im 34 still just sitting at my pottery wheel binge watching sex and city while my cats beg me to come to bed lol.

The most exciting thing about pottery for me is that I am literally pulling whats in my mind into reality. I never have the thought of, ” i hope it comes out how I envision it” unless i am thinking about the glaze. I LOVE glazing but sometimes she and Kiln God’s dont see eye to eye 🙄 but its ok.. I can just make it again !

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Honestly, the three most important skills that I possess im not sure is something you can teach. The Aries Queen I am just cannot be stopped if I have a goal set. To me, 5 years can go by and I will still do what I said I would. I am stubborn, I am determined and I am resilient. I refuse to not be an artist. Therefore I dont have any failures, I have lessons because I will get to where it is I want to go.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

Exactly how I am. I could honestly cry with how happy I am in my life right now. I would spend it doing art and spending all the time i could with my cats.

I should explain my love for my cats. My entire life growing up I was always a problem. The love I received was always conditional. If I acted right, if I was quiet, if I did my homework, if I wasnt so fat, if I was just a different person. I spent a lot of my life masking who I was to be more palletable for everyone. I got a concussion in 2017 and my life was ROCKED. I was severely depressed and sooooo angry because my brain just was not acting how it had been my entire life to that point. Absolutely no one had any compassion or patience for me. I am used to having to fix me but this was different and I could not escape the suicidal thoughts or my mind.

I decided that I needed somethinf to love because I could not find the love I needed to love me. I originally wanted a dog but I was working 12hr days and that just isnt fair for a dog so I adopted black kitten and I named her Luna. The shelter told me that 5 people came to see her and she would not let anyone hold her until me. She picked me and she saved me. My grandmother told me that I needed to get her friend and I was like NO but sure enough I went to petsmart to get supplies for Luna’s first day home and they were doing cat adoptions. Which is where I found Bella. She chose me too.

Those babies brought me back to life. They just love me and accepted me with my adhd, my anxiety and everything going on with my post concussion syndrome. There was nothing conditional about it. On my best days and especially on my worst days they just loved me.

So for me since I only have my babies for a short time I will spend it with my babies and my art and my plant babies of course.

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