Who Is Casey Anne?
Casey St John, born in Cronulla and now based in the tranquil coastal village of Bundeena within the Sydney Royal National Park, is a visionary ceramic artist whose work is shaped by lived experience and deep reverence for the natural world. Her formative years as a Jillaroo and seven years traveling across Australia’s outback — camping beneath starlit skies, working as a full‑time sheep shearer, and enduring the sudden loss of her father in 2018 — have cultivated a profound spiritual sensibility that informs her practice with clay.
Recognised as a finalist from among 1,300 entrants for the National Emerging Art Prize 2024 and awarded the ‘Award of Highest Excellence’ upon completing her Diploma in Ceramics in 2019, Casey’s ceramics explore themes of spiritual and natural beauty, equilibrium, and the subtle, magical ties that bind us to the sacred. Her hand‑formed, coil‑built vessels and sculptures draw on eclectic influences — from Art Nouveau and ancient Egyptian art to American Indian pottery, early classical traditions, and the intricacies of the natural world.
Casey frequently adorns her ornate vessels with custom sprig reliefs, each motif enriched by careful study of historical design languages and cultural forms. Through her ceramics she invites viewers into a contemplative realm where emotion, form, and the beauty of nature converge, offering space for reflection and renewed connection to the world around us.
Artist Statement;
The day I decided to commit to clay was the day I unknowingly committed to the greatest, most challenging journey I’ve ever been on. It’s introduced me to a new way of being in the world and to parts of myself I’d long forgotten.
Making a lot of ceramic work is essentially a way of being- a lifestyle. It encompasses everything I do and most of my thoughts. The hours involved are huge- hard to fathom really and I’m the one living it! When I look at the hours on paper, it makes my sense of time feel warped, but I also feel a great sense of satisfaction and peace from long hours spent in the flow state.
The further I go into this, the more of a devotional practice I feel it all becoming. Devotional to challenging myself, creating things of great beauty & a visual celebration of life and all creatures. Devotion to earth, which carries us all and is what’s expressing and transforming all these messages and intentions into physical form. The relationship I have with clay has really grown and surpassed anything I ever contemplated was possible, in the best, most magical way.
I think I’m going to be inspired for a long while, to decorate my forms with natural elements and animals. We are so lucky that mother nature has provided such an abundance of things for us to experience here, I really have never lost the awe and wonder I feel whenever I consider the beauty inherent in each thing that exists.
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