Kerri Louisa | Ceramics + Creative Process

Nioka Clay

Kerri Louisa is a beautiful soul who creates to inspire and encourage others to find their own rhythms in making. When I met Kerri, her main craft was music and songwriting. Today, Kerri has a vast and colourful body of work ranging from painting, illustration, ceramics, and the like.  Kerri creates on Gubbi Gubbi country in Noosa, Australia.

GM: Tell us about your present creative expression(s).

KL: I have become addicted to making things out of clay. I discovered ceramics while taking part in a Visual Arts Diploma a few years ago. I was intending to develop my love for illustration and painting which I was able to do a little bit but I found myself craving the feeling of muddy hands and daydreaming about all the things that could be made out of a simple lump of earth. Clay has sort of taken over since then. 

GM: What do you love about being a maker?

KL: I love that we have all been given resources and imagination to bring something into existence that simply wasn’t there before. Possibilities are endless and that gets me buzzing. I not only love being a maker but I love discovering and appreciating what others make. I really love how personal something can become when you know who made it. 

In this world of consumerism, we’ve lost touch with that I think. I find it really special to drink a cup of tea out of a cup my friend made or to be wrapped up in a quilt my Mum made - you feel a connection to the person. Living away from family and so many friends, this feels important to me. I love making but that’s only one side of it- sharing what I have made with others is what makes it feel really worthwhile for me. 

GM: Have you always considered yourself to be ‘creative’?

KL: Absolutely. I was banned from the kitchen at a young age due to my interest in experimenting with recipes and my 97 year old Nana still hides the scissors from me when I come to visit. I think my creative ways terrified my family when I was young. I believe everyone has been created to be creative, it’s part of our human design. Having a type of undiagnosed dyslexia, I needed to activate a lot of creativity thinking and problem solving to survive at school. I also relied heavily on my love for music, drama and art to get me through those difficulties and I have carried this with me into adulthood. I have always been intentional to make room for my creative interests because I feel closest to being me and most alive when I am doing these things. 

GM: Who inspires you?

KL: My kids. I have daughters aged 12 and 14, they have been a constant source of inspiration to me in many ways. I started painting because my youngest kept bringing these amazing watercolour paintings home from kindy. I had never tried watercolour before and thought it would be a nice activity to do together in the holidays. This unlocked a love for art in me that I hadn’t remembered for a good 15 years or more. I love being a Mum cause I’m really just a big kid at heart. I believe it's important to stay childlike, especially when it comes to creativity. When kids are little they don’t care if they're good at something, or whether or not someone likes what they have created- it’s just about exploring, learning and having fun. My kids inspire me to keep trying new things, to be curious and brave. 

GM: Where have you failed and continued on in your creative process?

KL: Oh my goodness, I have way too many stories to tell of this in the world of ceramics alone. I actually don’t believe in failure being a bad thing anymore. When something doesn’t work out it is not all loss, the lessons gained are invaluable. Anything successful has come from a journey of trial and error.

GM: What have you learned about yourself and/or life through your expression?

KL: That you just never know what you might discover next. You are never done growing and learning. You are allowed to do something unexpected, to reinvent yourself and forge new paths.

GM: What is something you want others to know about the creative process?

KL: The process is everything. It’s an intimate unseen world that only the creator really knows about. The final result holds a story, maybe the story can be seen or heard but there are many other stories interwoven within it that remain a mystery. I think this can apply to many things, a song, a vase, a logo design, a photograph or a written word. 

GM: What are you currently working on?

KL: I am currently working on my least favourite aspect of running a creative business- paperwork, financial records and other computer stuff. I’m just about to start working towards launching an online store to make it easier for people to purchase my work. This is exciting but not in my skill set so I feel a bit daunted by it all. I really just want to have my hands covered in clay today adding to my new range of mini vases. 

GM: Challenge us. Give a creative charge.

KL: My creative charge is to try something you haven’t tried before. The outcome isn’t to ‘be good’ at it, only to challenge yourself to try something new. 

GM: How can we follow what you’re doing?

KL: My ceramics are on Instagram @nioka.clay and the shop will be at www.niokaclay.com very shortly.