We were lucky to catch up with Jay Marsh recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jay, so great to have you on the platform. There’s so much we want to ask you, but let’s start with the topic of self-care. Do you do anything for self-care and if so, do you think it’s had a meaningful impact on your effectiveness?
I have seen friends and peers get a job in the creative industry who use the work they create there as their defining artwork, whether the artwork is something they are proud of or not. I understand this, as my own job is work I have the capacity to do, but it definitely isn’t any magnum opus. If you were a puzzle piece, seldom will even your dream job be a space the same shape as you. It’s important to fill the spaces doing activities such as personal art or other hobbies. Next to my work as a digital surface designer, I picked up ceramics at the same time to fill in the gaps, and I truly feel more whole because of it! So, I’ll do my job at my desk and follow instructions to a T, and then I’ll drive to my ceramics studio and make whatever I want, like bird charms, bird vases, and bird cups (I really like birds).
While I am breaking into vending artwork at events this Summer, I’m not sure if my ceramic endeavors are even profitable next to the studio fees. Additionally, I am quite conservative in my money and pottery studio time isn’t free, but ceramics has made me feel fulfilled in a way I know my job can’t completely make me feel (to no fault of the job), and I tell myself in an act of self care, I’m not going to worry about monetizing every form of art I do! In return, I don’t get as burnt out at my job.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am an illustrator, designer, and muralist born and raised in Lake Stevens, a city outside of Seattle in Washington State. Birds are my absolute favorite subject matter, but I also like illustrating flowers, nature, and other animals. I studied at the nearby Everett Community College before transferring to ArtCenter College of Design all the way in Pasadena, California. The flora was so different and it never became familiar to me. Now that I’ve moved back home after receiving my BFA in Illustration, I’m much more comfortable surrounded by the pines and moss. That might be why my art includes it so much!
While I work as a product surface designer, I also started making ceramics this year! Additionally, Currently, I am working on creating a small business in order to create a space to interact with, celebrate, and share more of my personal art. This Summer, I’ll be vending at some small events for the first time under my new branding. In other news, I’ll be participating in a public art intensive funded by the city of Redmond next month as I hope to have more mural endeavors, as well. I’ll also be having a few pieces displayed in the city’s new community center. I’m looking forward to it!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Learning to value my own worth is a skill I fight to remember. Last Summer, I offered a free mural to a new business in town on the terms that they would be purchasing any materials I needed. I justified it like “Well, alright, I haven’t done a TON of murals, so this is an experience for me!” It is true that I did learn a lot of valuable information tackling the project and I got to paint in my own voice mostly untethered from requirements or requests. However, it was a 3-month-long project that really burned me out and the owners were not polite to me in the end, making me completely question why I was doing this for them! In a world where people are making more than you ever could just sitting around, never ever offer work for free.
One unexpected skill that I incorporated into my artwork is woodworking. I was pretty obsessed with the laser cutter in the last few terms of school. It lets you cut out any shape you wanted from plywood with ease, so I made sculptures and toys for many of my final projects. Similar to my love of ceramics, I am proud to have grown into an artist that values analog materials just as much as digital, and I encourage any artist to work in new mediums and techniques.
In my entire time at ArtCenter, a very important general skill I learned is to practice courage! Consistently, I was the only one to speak without force in art critiques, which helped me create stronger relationships with my professors. It was extremely scary to begin speaking up in my first few terms, but courage is also a skill. You must practice being attentive and bold just like you were to practice drawing. Developing courage in school helped me score my first “art” job. I took a risk and, before the interview, sketched out a product design based on the company’s existing products, but with a new theme. I printed out my concepts and taped them into a little haphazard booklet with some washi tape. It charmed my employers, despite the back of my mind saying “Is this cringe? Is this being a try-hard?” I got the job, though!
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
This is a book I hold near and dear to my heart: The Art of Super Mario Odyssey, published by Nintendo. I keep it next to my desk and talk about it whenever I can. As a backstory, after reaching the halfway point in college, I felt creatively defeated. I recognized my art style was not where I wanted it to be, and I even began hating it. I had one teacher in particular who never celebrated my work like he did the others, and that really got to me. However, how could I blame him? I wasn’t celebrating it either.
One interest not directly related to my artistic career is that I love Super Mario, from the time I turned 4 to today at age 24. Anyways, feeling defeated, I came across an Ebay listing for a copy of The Art of Super Mario Odyssey and decided to buy it. Like the title implies, it is an art book for the Nintendo Switch game Super Mario Odyssey, compiling all of the concept artwork and thoughts made during development. While I adored the game, I skipped the art book when it initially came out, probably to save money or maybe there was a part of me that felt silly for liking Mario too much around my friends who did not have the same feelings. However, I believe it was this book that completely changed my art style for the better. There is such a fresh, bold, and shapely look to every illustration of each land and character that made me throw away what I was doing artistically at the time. The inspiration was an incredible help to develop a style that I truly loved working in but was still uniquely me. Thank you, Mario! If you check it out, my favorite part is the concepts for the Wooded Kingdom. Take your silly interests seriously.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jaymarshillustration.com/
- Instagram: @jay.bvrd
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-marsh-illus/
