Joanna lives and works in Devon . She has returned to her native South Hams after working abroad for twenty years and now divides her time between her job and her real love – sculpture.

After gaining an honours degree in Geology from the University of London Joanna worked for twelve years as a geologist in the great mining camps of northern Ontario . Moving on to warmer climates she spent the next eight years in Africa travelling extensively throughout the continent in pursuit of tribal art. Her most indelible memories are of the years in the great rainforests of the Congo basin camping with the Pygmies, battling through the mud wallows that pass for roads and crossing endless waterways with the vehicle balanced on waterlogged dugout canoes. The final three years were spent running a specialised welding business in Nairobi . Joanna returned to the UK in 1993.

Artist’s Statement

There is art everywhere. It seems the closer you get to ‘uncivilised' tribal cultures the more important artistic expression is to everyday life. The very first recognisable images created by human beings were of animals, and what powerful images they are. They speak to us today as clearly as they did to our most distant ancestors. Making images of animals has been part of the human psyche for so long that it has become a common thread linking us with our earliest artistic urgings. I like to create sculptures of animals. I don't really know why, I just find it satisfying. As well as the obvious inspiration of nature and landscape there is this faint vibration of an ancient tradition that finds its expression in the clay. I work in ceramic, cold cast bronze and concrete as well as mixed media.