Artist Bio

South African born, Michelle Merrifield has a background in Fine Arts and Graphic Design, and works across a variety of mediums, including painting, drawing, photography and digital art. After completing her Fine Arts degree in South Africa, Michelle started her career as an Illustrator. On arrival in Melbourne Australia, she completed a Graphic Design Diploma and worked as a Graphic Designer, thereafter, moving into freelance illustration and teaching Graphic design at Tafe for several years. Throughout this time, she maintained a close connection to her ceramics practice, working at private ceramic studios and attending ceramic workshops in her free time, always trying to improve her making.

In 2019, she returned to her love of working in clay full time and presently works as a Ceramic Artist from a studio at The Kiln Room, in Keysborough Victoria. She teaches private ceramic hand building classes and mentors students with art classes designed for personal needs as well as works as a ceramic studio assistant. In her studio space, she designs and creates ceramic sculptures for exhibitions, commissions, markets, online and private sales. In 2021 she won the Wrap Major Prize at East Gippsland Art Gallery for Small Sculpture.

She devotes most of her time, to concentrate on hand built forms including figurative clay sculpture, exploring the idea of introspection and reflection, working intuitively with themes that are often reflections of humanity and it’s fragile connection to nature and the environment. Fish are a recurring symbol in her work working with the idea that fish are known for their ability to survive in challenging environments and adapt to various conditions.