Paul's Dog Martha

This series of thirteen paintings by Codie O’Connor explores the relationship between daydreaming and everyday life, where fleeting thoughts, emotional undercurrents, and passing impressions gradually take visual form. Created through an intuitive process, the works translate internal experiences into layered compositions of color, gesture, and atmosphere. Rather than depicting fixed narratives, the paintings function as emotional landscapes shaped by memory, mood, and sensation, inviting open-ended interpretation rather than direct explanation.

List-making plays a central role within O’Connor’s practice. Throughout the development of each series, the artist compiles ongoing lists of songs, film fragments, conversations, colors, and passing remarks that act as both anchors and catalysts within the studio process. These evolving archives inform the paintings’ palettes, shapes, and compositional rhythms, creating a deeply personal visual language. Once completed, traces of the lists reemerge as painting titles or series names, serving as subtle markers of nostalgia and memory embedded within the work itself.