The ancient artist's influences can still be felt in today's craftsmen. For example, the contemporary weaver Sheila Hick's prayer rugs are an assimulation of the textile techniques of ancient Peru, Persia, and India, and the macramed forms of the contemporary Spanish artist, Aurelis Munoz, are suggestive of the woven huts of many primitive cultures. Because of this influence upon the current investigation, the evolvement of weaving and its techniques, as well as the three-dimensional techniques of basketry, in different parts of the world and in different historical periods are reviewed briefly.

The problem of this investigation is to determine if the shrinkage resulting from water loss, which causes cracking in polymer-acrylic emulsion artists' paints, can be controlled to produce a predictable variety of surface textures useful in painting. Preliminary information on the behavior of polymer-emulsion paints was taken from published material such as Mayer's Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, Woody's Polymer Painting, and various manufacturers' technical publications. Experimental investigations were conducted to observe the media under varied methods of application and conditions of drying. The information gathered in the experiments was used to develop techniques producing a variety of predictable textural alterations, which were used in a series of experimental paintings.

This study deals with an analysis of facial characteristics and expressions and their interpretation through drawings. Through the past several years of teaching in a Dallas school where so many nationalities are represented and where the various peoples of the lowest privileged groups are segregated, the writer has become deeply interested in what is to be seen in the faces of children. The second problem of the study features an analysis of facial characteristics and expressions and their interpretation through drawings, modeling in clay, and papier mache.

This project was designed to afford me the opportunity to work with the possibility of combining painting and music through the creation of narrative art. I endeavored to produce a body of work in which the individual paintings and songs would also stand on their own as autonomous works, and still function as components of a work that was larger in scope. The challenge was to develop the visual and verbal elements into a unified whole.

I decided to simplify the composition of my work in subject matter, color, size and style without destroying its visual impact. Experimentation in surface quality gave variety to the simplified content. My main commitment to the accomplishment of this problem was to avoid complexity in any form. I wanted to give as much information as possible using minimal means.

There were no restrictions as to style or technique, and since my previous works had been realistic, this direction was to be continued during the entire investigation. The primary objective was to create a series of drawings and paintings which would concentrate on the basic facial topography and idiosyncrasies of a constant model with variations in color, scale, medium, and expression.

In this creative project, I investigated the combination of photographic images with more spontaneous visual elements in collaged drawing and monoprints in order to produce both visually strong and personally meaningful works.

In selecting a thesis project, my interest and experience with fibre-tip pen drawings suggested that further investigations would be profitable. Fibre-tip pens provide a fast and convenient means to draw under outdoor conditions. The pens make dense black and consistent lines at whatever speed they are moved. The ink supply is automatic; not requiring a separate container for dipping and not requiring cleaning. Fibre-tip pens designed to make lines of different widths are commercially available at low cost.

The problem was to investigate illusionary space as affected by dark surfaces using the elliptical and spherical shapes from previous work. I explored the potential of visual tension, movement, pattern, and various degrees of space on surfaces of opposite tonalities from those previously used. An investigation of space on dark surfaces was undertaken and ten works completed.

The Untidy Story of Goldie Showers is a collaborative paper written by Lee Murray and me with the approval of the Graduate School and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of both degrees. Chapter Four is different in each of the two papers which we have submitted to the Graduate School. Since this chapter contains the overall conclusion to the project we considered it best to present our individual impressions rather than to attempt a joint statement. The video tape produced in connection with this project is on file in the North Texas State Art Department slide library.

To investigate this process I selected, as my creative project, the execution of a series of drawings. The objective of my creative project was the synthesis of additive/subtractive procedures of a drawing from its inception to its completion. A written journal was utilized to gather data pertinent to the investigation.

The purpose of this study is to examine the development of a series of paintings and drawings confined to the subject of trains and the derailings of trains. This creative project includes a descriptive study which documents the development as it occurs in the series. The written material is utilized with regard to its relevance in uncovering pertinent conditions and events that contributed to the drawing and painting processes during the execution of the series.

In the monotypes I have done, a third figure has emerged in the spontaneity of the process as a simple face shape and element of composition. Virtually ignored by the others the third figure becomes a puzzle as to its complete role. As this third figure came about from a natural development in the monotypes, I have explored its meaning in my paintings for the creative project in lieu of thesis. I have investigated the role of the third figure in meaning and content as I introduced it to the interaction of the two figures in my paintings.