Conversations with Paul Jeselskis

Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Jeselskis.

Hi Paul, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
When I was a student Bradley university in Peoria Illinois I was studying psychology, and geological engineering.
Every semester I would take an art class and in my junior year I wandered into a ceramics class and was completely amazed watching somebody throw a pot on a potters wheel.
I said to myself, I want to do that.
After two months, I dropped the geology major and added an art major, with a focus on ceramics.
After 2 1/2 more years, I graduated with a degree in psychology and a bachelor of fine arts in ceramics.
Whenever I demonstrate, I tell this story but I add on to the story that I also received an honorary degree in psycho ceramics. People always ask me what is that? I tell them it’s the study of crack pots. It usually gets a laugh.
I went on to get a masters degree at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.

I spent one year doing an artist residency at Millersville University in Millersville Pennsylvania.
I built up enough inventory to start doing art fairs the following year and I’ve been selling my work ever since.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I was very fortunate that I was successful right away.
After my first year in business, I bought a house and built my own studio.
The only struggle I’ve ever had with ceramics are material changes coming from the mine.
You could have a beautiful glazed recipe and then all of a sudden it quits working and the problems could be chased back to mineral contamination at the mine site, or the discontinuation of certain materials because of mine has run dry.
Whenever this would happen, it would take 3 to 4 months to run tests to figure out where the problems are coming from and while running all these tests, you’re throwing out a lot of work that has failed.

Physical issues can be a struggle.
In 1997 I herniated disc in my lower back and that completely changed the way I had to work.
I could no longer sit down on the potters wheel and I had to learn to throw standing up.
Currently, I am dealing with a torn rotator cuff and that is changing the way I work now..

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a professional potter/ceramic artist. I’ve been working with Clay professionally for 37 years.
I started out as a production, potter making dinnerware, mugs, cups, ect.ect.
Then, after 10 years of that, I slowly transitioned into more artful ceramics, with a lot of carving and colorful glazes.
Currently, I’m transitioning into more architectural ceramics by creating large sculptural tiles along with sculptural vessel and other forms.
I believe what I’m most proud of and what separates me from others is my ability to change and develop new ideas and new bodies of work. A lot of potters end up making the same stuff their whole lives. I find that completely boring because there’s so much to be excited about and influence by.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I never really thought of luck is playing a role. I’ve always been an extremely hard worker
However, I was fortunate to get into the art fair business in 1989 while it was still booming.
And maybe I was lucky that customers liked my color, palette and my designs immediately. I never really struggled financially in this business, I consider myself pretty successful from day one.

My personal philosophy is bad luck, usually can be turned into good luck, if you take that opportunity to change and move forward. That opens up a whole new realm of possibility.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.pauljeselskis.com/
• Youtube: YouTube@pauljeselskis8829

Image Credits
Self