[2]In the mid-1960s, he moved to California, where he worked as the set designer for the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, he worked primarily in the Southwestern United States, where he painted large murals[3] and was visible in New Mexico's most respected art galleries, being part of the Santa Fe artist group Nerve[4] and gaining a reputation for his large installations.
[5] Connell used plaster-of-Paris in the 1980s, and later turned to tar, paper and wax, in large figurative sculptures.
In the early 1980s, he mostly gave up using commercial paints and began making his own out of iron oxide and pigments.
[9] Connell's influences included Hokusai, Rembrandt, Balzac, Dante, Giacometti and De Kooning.