Stef Kerek is a ceramic artist who uses a variety of clay bodies with an emphasis on organic and textural surfaces. Her practice reflects her own connection to landscape. As a keen climber she is drawn to geology: the local gritstone and limestone craggy outcrops and caves. She describes;
‘There is a dichotomy in landscape, it can feel safe and calm or hostile and wild and everything in between. It offers solace as a place to step away from the buzz of a life that can run away with itself. It demands attention. We are not separate from nature, but part of it. Yet we behave as though we are and yet there is a knowing, that we are all interconnected, we are really one. Perhaps there is an illusion of duality?
I stepped into natural landscapes from the moment I was born and have found it to be my greatest friend, teacher and therapist. Turning to adventurous activities like climbing and surfing helped me to make sense of myself, my relationship with others and my connection to the world. Most importantly, it offered me immersive experience into wild environments.
My practice is based on physical and emotional observations from direct experience. As a ceramic artist I use the materiality of the clay to explore my inner world as a response to what I explore and then create organic and textural abstract sculpture. I have a love of geology, climbing being a tactile and intimate activity. The essence of my work captures the energy, the aesthetic of both the natural and man made. The sculpture I make is nearly always of vessel form, representing ones inner and outer world, that can only coexist