Joan Wheeler’s paintings serve as her visual diary. As with dream imagery, interpretations may vary and content is personal and symbolic; her themes are highly autobiographical and reflect fear, hope, sorrow and longing, most often played out in a natural setting.
Through her work, she explores her connection with the natural world and her sadness over the destruction that man has brought to our planet. She looks for meaning in the ephemeral, yet cyclical, seasons of nature, and search for the interconnectedness of events over time.
"Like leaves in a river, the events and relationships of today flow by and become the past, while the events of the future move inexorably closer. In this onward rush of time, nothing ceases to exist but rather moves to a space that is less visible to the human eye. In the same way, the fears and hopes of the past never disappear but reconfigure endlessly in the inner theatre of the soul."