Over the past few years we've admired Marieke's magnificent animal ceramic sculptures at The Craft Festival at Bovey Tracey, Devon.
Last year after seeing her work pop up again on instagram we plucked up the courage to see if Marieke would like to stock Moon & Moor with her beautiful animal sculptures, to our joy she said yes!
We love having hr work in the gallery, they get so much attention and joyous new homes are now adorned with these creations.
Hello, I'm Marieke,
Animals have always played a major role in my life. They are source of fascination and inspiration. Grown up in the countryside of south west Germany animals have been constant companions.”
Before studying Ceramic Art at Burg Giebichenstein in Halle, Germany, I was trained as a potter in Landshut, Bavaria. It was very important to me to learn as much as I could about clay, designing my own slips and glazes, firing techniques and how to solve problems before my studies of Ceramic Art. In the five year Diploma course at University, I found a way to express myself, to work from the heart - creating animal sculptures and exploring the relationships between humans and (other) animals.
Since 2015 I live and work in Moretonhampstead, a small town located on Dartmoor, in the south west of England.
I work in stoneware clay and locally found clays from Dartmoor. I generally build my sculptures solid, and hollow them out when they are leather hard. This allows me to work the piece with more eypression, I don’t have to be very careful when I add and substract clay in the process.
I consider a piece finished when I can sense a feeling, an emotion, “something” coming across from the animals expression or gesture. This is possibly the most essential part of my work. By creating this kind of connection to my work and ultimately with my work and the viewer, I try to tighten the gap between humans and other animals, I seek to create a sense of essential relatedness between mammals. The equine and canine subject are of particular interest to me, their history and deep connection to human kind are fascinating and compelling to me.
Follow Marieke - @marieke.ringel
