Joanna Greatwich - 'The Fight'

Mixed media: collaged stitched and burnt calico, hand-dyed polyester and paper images on board.

I am someone who must create from the origin of my current concerns and the real-life themes that are important both to myself, and to others. I have interests particularly in Pre-Raphaelite art, Art Nouveau illustration, climate change art, pop artists such as Keith Haring, abstract artists like Gerhard Richter, and the framing and tones achieved in photography- such as by Man Ray and Julia Margaret Cameron.

Recurring themes in my work are heaven/good/light/truth in dialogue with hell/evil/darkness/lies; the hidden and visible; symbols and messages; gestures and dance movement; and climate change/the natural world in relation to human beings, capitalism, and power.

‘The Fight’ came from a desire to use a circle of natural material - calico, to manipulate and overlay it to ask some questions: Have we forgotten what utopia we started with? Where, really, do we think our on-going fight with nature will lead us?