About

“Art is just the ash of a life well burned”.
Leonard Cohen
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Katya Chekina is a ceramic artist who works from conveying her feelings that are influenced by her intuitive connection to her feminine strength, nature and raw materials.
Her work is conceived by sensing what intention she wants to communicate through a sense of touch in unison with the earth, often foraging for textural objects as a source of inspiration.
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Hey, welcome, can I pour you some more rose tea to fill your cup while I unfold my story?

What an honour to receive your visit and time to be still, and let my words sink in.

Take your cup a little closer to your heart, can you feel the rough texture, does it enchant you? A common thread through my work is to create objects which give strength to the daily rituals in our existence. To feel, to touch, to open our senses and connect deep within.

Intentional ceramics are made through a slow and conscious process where creativity is celebrated and supported. In this process, clay is my guide; a mentor to balance and manifest beauty in everyday life. My way of working is an ode to life and its imperfections, it is surrendering to an intuitive search for identity. Through a soft, feminine energy during the ritual creation process, I try to look with my eyes closed and give meaning to expression without words, as a universal love language that interconnects us with that which is, was and may come.

My creations are an expression of my heritage and the journey I have had to make. Roots that spread out from the humid Ukrainian forests where I was born, to the dry Kazakh steppe where I played as a child. The apricots and mulberries I ate growing up in Uzbekistan, fleeing as a child with my parents to Belgium.

Spii.c.ka, in my native language Russian, means : a match. A tool to make fire and a key to life, or the fire that burns within you.

My grandfather and one of the greatest storytellers shared a very valuable lesson with me before he took his last breath. He lit a match and I, then a girl of five, was allowed to watch this special burning ritual very carefully. As fast as the burning of this piece of wood, so fast he felt his life had gone by. The words he shared with me afterwards I carry with me every day; surrender to life, to the beauty of being, this magical existence that may be lived from your passions, enjoy all the small, big and even unpleasant moments in life, they are so temporary, every moment passes and brings lessons to receive and cherish. Don't let your head catch you, don't live in shame or fear, before you know it this experience will be over. And most importantly, always go where your heart leads you and what your soul yearns for.

THIS IS SPII.C.KA.

In our logo you see two matches, one half burnt and one can still be lit. It symbolises that we always have the strength to start again, to feel through and remake a choice that was made earlier. To stop in this life and ask yourself; what I think, what I do, where I fill my days with, is this my spii.c.ka? Does my fire, my heart, my passion burn for this? Or is it time to take a new path and light a new match.

The second match is partly burnt out and represents the imperfect life we lead, it represents vulnerability and what makes us human. A tangibility that we don't have to be perfect like machines and that this human tactility, genuineness is what we adore and want to feel in life as in ceramics, the emotion that is conveyed without words. A distinction in what is mass produced in factories. Handmade work should not come in identical sets, the scene is allowed to unfold.

My work is a rebellion against standards, against perfection, mass production and industrialisation. Standards that were created not for beauty, but for quick and mindless profit, and which have been shown to us in abundance so many times that they may have clouded our view of what we really think is beautiful.

It symbolises the daily dance we dance throughout this life to embrace harmony, beauty, love and softness. A dance we make to find meaning in a world that makes less and less sense, where we yearn for a deeper connection with nature and humanity.

Just like every human being, who is different and unique, carries their cracks and imperfections, I want each of my pieces to have its own soul and character and carry its imperfections and even insecurity with pride. Imperfections show vulnerability, a dare to be different.

I want to make pieces that connect me with clay, with nature, with soil. Pieces which let my creativity flow and inspire yours in any way possible. Pieces which give a deep pleasure for me to make them and for you to use. Pieces that can be felt and danced with their tactility and traces of the making process. Guided by emotion, intuition, pleasure and curiosity.