Meet Marc Jeannin

We recently connected with Marc Jeannin and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Marc, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I got my work ethic from my father. He is a man that always has to be doing something. He is also someone who emigrated to the US, where I find that immigrants work hard as a personal achievement to be an “American”. My father was head chef and owner of a catering company where he had me working in a kitchen since I was six years old. By the time I was a teenager I was working catering events. Any time I wasn’t in school I had to work at the kitchen and I personally despised it, especially as a teenager. His options were work in the kitchen, or take a class/go to school. There was never an option to do absolutely nothing. He recognized school as a full time job where self enrichment or basic understanding of various subjects can take place. Later in life I realize that these options were having the time to make something of yourself, or having the time and capacity to know yourself. Since moving on to different jobs and focusing on my vocation of pottery making, I understand that I can’t not do what I love. There is a constant desire to do something satisfying which gives me purpose. Even if things aren’t going the way I’d like them to, I at least know that my effort to get there is something to be proud of and that my work ethic at least speaks for itself even though the final product does not turn out perfect.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Ceramics engages me in a dynamic pursuit of unconventional problem solving where I value diverse experiences and learning every day. If I get too comfortable doing something for too long, something feels wrong. It was my last year of undergraduate studies I took my first ceramics class and was hooked. It became an obsession where I knew if I wanted to continue doing pottery, I would have to find a job doing it. This pursuit has brought me to various pottery jobs, teaching opportunities, and artist residencies. I am currently pursuing a graduate degree getting a masters of fine arts with a focus in ceramics. The intention of coming back to school was to become a better artist but more so experience a new challenge. Before going back to school I didn’t feel like there was anywhere to go with the studio job I was working. I depended on that business in various ways: it was my space to make and be creative with clay, it was a place for social engagement, and also my only source of income. I was in a position to where there was no promotion to be had nor pay raise to be given and the same motions over and over again. I craved a new exploration, where an academic setting felt like the most logical place to grow within my vocation and have moments of self reflection. At this point I have come to the realization that you don’t need a degree to be an artist. However the motivation to continue with that difficult vocation is what makes certain ones stand out. School at this point feels like a challenge that I have to finish all the way through because I am the type of person to follow things through. My plan is to return and have a studio of my own where I support myself and others through my passion in clay.

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?

1. Pursue things that interest you. It’s worth the struggle. There are lots of people who feel that they have to do a certain job, be a certain person, or they glorify the idea of doing or being someone/something that seems desirable. In reality they might hate what they’re doing or what they’ve become because they think they were supposed to be something else. If you follow your interests it leads you to places that feel right. When you follow your interests other people will recognize your passions, and typically help you along the way. I find that if you pursue your interests, only good can come from what you do.

2. Any interaction is an opportunity. It’s a fairly vague statement but makes sense once you recognize it. This doesn’t mean try to talk to everyone at any moment possible: that’s exhausting and likely something to spread yourself too thin. Interactions can be as simple as smile to a stranger, feeding a bird some crumbs, trying something new, going somewhere you’ve never been: all these situations lead to something greater for the human experience. If you allow yourself to be, and are present for the moment, you realize that existing is the greatest opportunity of them all.

3. Don’t put things off. In fact its ideal to do it then and there. This is something that I struggle with because sometimes I’m not in the mood or feel like I’m not in the best head space to complete whatever task is at hand. The longer something is postponed, the more stress and immediacy that task will have later on. Procrastination creates more problems than remedying a situation beforehand. This extends to being punctual to appointments and meeting deadlines. A person who is always late or doesn’t turn things in on time is often seen as unreliable. If you complete a task lack luster ahead of time, that’s seen better than the rush of completing just before or after the time it is expected. Oftentimes a situation like that produces poor quality work. The perfect solution is give yourself enough time, plan accordingly, and be sure you give an honest effort.

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?

I’ve found that my life has gone through lots of phases, more specifically skill oriented or vocationally so. For example growing up I was in a martial arts for ten years. I learned to play various instruments where I no longer own any of them for me to casually play. I had worked in food service for most of my life, but no longer work those kinds of gigs. This has me wondering or more so scared that maybe my passion of ceramics might just be another phase in my life. Who am I to know that this vocation will be the end all definition of work and passion for me. For all the activities that I’ve done, even though I don’t necessarily do them, I don’t feel like they were ever a waste. From all these experiences I feel like those skills have translated into something else that benefits my experience. A challenge I am facing is that I feel like some things are missing in my life. When I played instruments more often, the cohesion that music has with other musicians is like no other that I don’t experience the same way. When I was in martial arts the constant learning of new techniques and having physical exercise was incredibly engaging for me. A conundrum I have is if I were to introduce these back in my life would they hold the same effect? And more so, would I be able to balance all these things that used to be me back into my life effectively? It’s romantic to think about being the polymath that has the time to do everything. But more logically, having these things that defined me at one point and time, is it worth balancing what used to be or just keep continuing forward? This is an existential challenge I face every once in a while. It doesn’t stop me from doing what I do, it more so creates a longing of what else I could have been.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://marcjeannin.com
• Instagram: @jeannin.marc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@marcjeannin4776

Image Credits

All my images