Marieke completed five years of study of ceramics at the University of Art and Design, Halle, Germany before relocating to Devon in January 2016.

Animals are the focus of her sculpture. The different ways that humans relate to animals are of particular interest to Marieke and it is these relationships she seeks to make apparent.

Throughout history, animal metaphors have been used to express feelings and emotions and explore our psychology and reasoning. They infiltrate our language and describe our behaviour.

Marieke’s animals act as a mediators for unconscious processes or to represent emotions; a yearning for nature, fierceness and freedom. Encasing her animal subject in a thin box made of clay, almost like a manufactured cardboard box, she subtly suggests a human association.

As well as providing a human context from which to view the animal, the box helps to focus attention as does a picture frame. It creates a space, to discover the animal and maybe to find yourself.

Marieke exhibited with Hybrid at the Affordable Art Fairs in 2017.