“Clay is almost like a metaphor for life. For the body. It remembers, responds, reflects, and doesn’t forgive you if you mistreat it... it will always show up in the end product. So, clay has humbled me. I needed to go through that humbling process to find myself again...”
My story...
My name is Ronél, and I am the creative hands behind the Swalō brand.
I am Namibian born, South African raised, and have called Australia home
for the past 18 years.
Since my introduction to clay as a Fine Art student in my early 20s, I've had
a strong connection and lingering love affair with this magical medium.
But making a career out of clay always seemed to have eluded me. Instead,
I've spent over 20 years building a creative career as a designer and art director in Australia and abroad. But as with all great loves, the yearning for clay stayed with me and kept drawing me back.
Then one seemingly insignificant day in January 2018, whilst in Sydney for a short stay, I stumbled into a small ceramic studio just off trendy Oxford Street. I looked around in awe and told the lady covering the studio that my dream had always been to have a little ceramic studio. She smiled and said: 'Well, maybe you should give it a go!'. I answered back: 'If only I had the courage'.
I never knew that day that this would be the beginning of a huge tipping point in my life. A few months later, I unexpectedly found myself in a place where adversity and loss took away all my inhibitions and preconceived ideas about myself and life. With very little to lose and everything to gain, I found the courage to start a little studio, and Swalō was born.
My work...
I specialise in Nerikomi-inspired, functional art, and my work is influenced
and driven by my love of the Namibian landscape and the delicate balance between tone, texture and form.
I use the intricate layering of clay into Nerikomi patterns, an ancient Japanese technique, to explore these narratives. Through the layering process used in Nerikomi, I can draw awareness to the surface beneath the clay by drawing
the eye into the surface. This approach becomes an abstract exploration into 'painting' with clay.
My work also questions the fine line between utilitarianism and objects of art, and I create work that draws on our sense of nostalgia, loss, memory and longing.
Having varied and diverse experiences and influences has impacted my aesthetic and infused my work with a sense of discipline, order and design.
