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Creating Cyanotypes, Creating a Dissertation
In February or March, I started playing with cyanotypes on fabric. Doing cyanotypes in winter in Minnesota is… not the easiest thing to do, but I was just experimenting, playing around. Over a period of several months, I kept experimenting with different natural materials, different weather conditions, different exposure times. And then, somehow, my cyanotypes […]
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My Touchstone Dissertation Writing Question
I changed my dissertation topic in the last year of my program. I wouldn’t recommend this, but it had to be done. I wrote about how this affected reading for my dissertation in a previous post. What I didn’t realize is that this shift would have a psychological impact on writing the dissertation. In my […]
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How Much Reading Do I Need to Do?
One of the biggest hurdles I’ve faced in working on my doctoral dissertation is knowing when to stop reading. I know this is a common problem. When should PhD students stop reading? How much is enough? How do you get over the nagging feeling that you might be missing something? And what do you do […]
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Artmaking First
“Artmaking first. Process over product.” One of the difficult things about being an arts-based researcher, for me, is trying to figure out how to find time for artmaking over writing. Ultimately, the academy (the whole system I’m depending on to grant me my PhD) honors writing more than artmaking, and my dissertation is primarily a […]
Amanda Shopa
Artist. Researcher. Teacher.
