The interconnection between organic forms and what may at first seem like antithetical hints of conflict can be traced to Meadows' first interaction with his animal inspiration; the large number of crab species he encountered while stationed in the Indian Ocean during the Second World War. His human or animal figures appeared damaged and battered by war and violence, which worked with their often welded metal or pitted bronze appearance, to make them seem both mechanised and taut with human vulnerability. Herbert Read summarised his reaction: ‘Here are images of flight, or ragged claws "scuttling across the floors of silent seas", of excoriated flesh, frustrated sex, the geometry of fear.’