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.

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 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.