In Magical Thinking, Heidi Conrod explores through the act of painting, the depiction of mental states through the cautious release and withholding of visual, conceptual, and autobiographical cues. Reflecting on the nature of memory and time and the fluid ways in which these seemingly immaterial phenomena interact, the paintings represent multiple visions within one viewing experience; commenting not only on the surface of things, but also on what may lie hidden beneath. The works are best understood through introspection rather than a forced rationale. These paintings are intended to read like a stream, or perhaps a pool of consciousness, where the unconscious is expressed through swirls of imagery with surrealist undertones alluding to the seemingly contradictory conditions of dream and reality. Here fact, fiction, memory and imagination, are intertwined in a non-linear style through a multitude of painterly applications.

In working with paintings dealing with the interpretation of landscape in oil paint and mixed media during the past year, I have seen new possibilities. This is true both of my approach to landscape painting and of the handling of the painting materials. These studies have led me to a freer handling of paint. In addition, they have led me to be able to make a more universal statement concerning landscape itself rather than only a visual representation of one particular landscape. The first indication that a universal statement about landscape could be achieved became apparent to me while I was working with mixed media. The natural action of one medium upon the other very often suggests landscape forms which the artist can clarify into a statement about landscape. Using the paint itself to develop a motif enables one to deal more directly with ideas about landscape, concepts of color, and spatial perspective than with the illusion of a particular place. It is such experimentation as this that led me toward what I believe to be a universal statement about landscape. Another discovery I made in doing the series was that oil paint could be handled in much the same manner as mixed media. However, it is the action of one oil color upon another while in a liquid state that becomes the means of suggesting forms. It is the rhythmic movement of these forms and colors that reflects the constant changing and movement of nature. To me this is the essence of the natural landscape and that which brings life to it. In this series of paintings the subjective analysis of nature inevitably dropped the objective details of the real landscape. One’s attention begins to be centered on the effects of the total landscape – effects of color changes, rhythm and movement, form relationships, spatial relationships, and atmospheric effects, events that are to be found in nature itself. My major consideration in doing this series of paintings was that of color in which I had to decide which colors would best suit the total impression I sought and express plastic space as well. A major discovery for me was that of the difference between wash painting and brush painting. In brush painting ideas are somewhat changed as work progresses, but, generally, each brush stroke and each color is calculated from the beginning to produce a desired effect. In wash painting much of the work on the canvas is the result of searching by the artist in the work itself as the paint develops natural forms on the canvas. It is at this point that he takes over with the brush and fully capitalized on the developing forms. I believe that color plays a major role in involving the viewer emotionally and intellectually in a painting. It seems to me that part of the role of the artist is to deliver messages that can invite others, in some way, to share his feeling about the nature of things. For this reason he must seek a statement that will have a universal expression so that he may communicate with others. This I have tried to do.

Contained within my thesis is an analysis of my paintings in relation to paintings that are being done in this age and area. Thus, I have discussed the geographic and atmospheric environment which necessarily affects the artist’s work. The paintings which have been chosen to comprise my thesis are two views of the Steel Bridge and four views of an old barrel mill in North Portland. They have been executed in Polymer-Acrylics, a Hy-Plar product. This medium, plus the subject matter, compositional and technical problems are given consideration. Lastly,I have briefly summarized what I believe painting to be.

The theme evolved into one aspect of a specific city. Portland, Oregon is famous for its bridges. In actuality, they are the hinges that make it a metropolis instead of two middle-sized urban cities. Thinking along these lines, most sketching was concentrated around these connecting links. Eventually the Broadway, Steel and Hawthorne proved to be the most interesting as to line, pattern, and shape as well as most important in the history of the city. These three were combined into a triptych with a different bridge occupying each panel. The most difficult problem was one of composition – how to present each bridge with equal importance in an individual way, yet unifying all so that the viewer would see the three single panels as one entity. I tried to solve the problem of variation and importance by placing each bridge at a different angle and on a different perspective plane, yet drawing each one on a large scale so that it became the dominant area in the panel. Line and color are the unifying factors. Black is the important color in each bridge and also in the beams in the foreground. These beams are not contained within each panel, as are the bridges, but go beyond and into all three so as to form one composition. Much knowledge has been gained personally through this thesis – most of it in the area of compositional planning. It has emphasized the need for detail in preliminary work (line, value, and color). It has shown that there is no substitute for the exhaustion of all approaches to the subject. The learning process here should apply to all works and to the teaching process as well, for these two general ideas of exploration and planning can change the mediocre into something worthwhile.

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This thesis project consists of twenty-four paintings, drawings and lithographs dealing with three sub-themes of the larger subject of mystery: the mystery of existence; the mystery of religion; the mystery of the unknown. These themes are explored through manipulations of light, color, compositional arrangement and painting and drawing techniques.

The thesis consisted of a series of paintings in which the canvases were individually painted in a predetermined way, then arranged and assembled more spontaneously in a final wall construction. Narrow limitations, such as working with only horizontal and vertical compositions and contrasting colors were specified. By working within a method or procedure, and by remaining strict to these guidelines, the ideas inherent in the paintings emerged and were then promoted. The dominant ideas that developed out of the process of making the paintings were the use of both "found" shapes -found in leftover lengths of support material-and "found" means of dividing the canvas, found in statistical information culled from current events in the newspaper. Also, the idea of unifying the painting with contrasting shapes, colors, surfaces, and values arose out of the process. The actual results of the painting process became clearer during the "spontaneous assembling of the paintings." The final wall constructions were made by arranging the individual canvases in different configurations and then mounting them on the wall. After the paintings went to the wall, possibilities for alteration and how they interacted with the wall could be seen.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1982. / Vita. Bibliography: leaves [410]-421.

Akademisk avhandling--Gothenburg. / Thesis statement on added t.p. "Bibliografi": p. 312-[315].

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