Amanda Shopa, PhD

Category: Artmaking

  • Week 2 of 209 Weeks

    Week 2 of 209 Weeks

    Week 2 of 209 Weeks: “The fact that we hope, even though we know what is going on, is what makes us wonderful.” —Arundhati Roy Photo Notes: This photo was taken at Pacem in Terris in Isanti, MN in Nov–Dec 2021. These were the tiniest acorn caps I’d ever seen.

  • Week 1 of 209 Weeks

    Week 1 of 209 Weeks

    Week 1 of 209 Weeks: “Hope can be bruised and battered. It can be forced underground and even rendered unconscious, but hope cannot be killed.” —Neal Shusterman in Unsouled Photo Notes: This photo was taken at Geonsancheon Stream in Jeonju, South Korea in September of October 2018.

  • Where Has All the 4 by 6 Paper Gone?

    As I described in my previous post, there are a lot of moving parts to making a photographic postcard. I thought I had figured out my postcard plan for the 209 Weeks art project—resin coated 4 by 6 paper, RC-friendly mounting tissue, and cardstock that would easily take a rubber stamp. All I needed was…

  • The Moving Parts of a Photography Project

    Back in the 90s, I occasionally sent friends photo postcards. I used stick-on postcard backs, which make the photos a little stiffer and postcard like, or I just drew a vertical line down the back of a regular photo lab photo, addressed it, and threw a stamp on it. Now, thirty years later, I’ve come…

  • 372 Days

    Today I got in my darkroom for the first time in over a year. I made a lot of dumb mistakes, and wasted a lot of paper, but today I got in my darkroom for the first time in over a year.

  • Dating My Inner Artist

    I’ve spent the last several months taking a creative break, creative sabbatical, creative rest. I haven’t been making or doing anything. I’ve allowed myself to completely give up my artistic practices. I have been going on artist’s dates.

  • Seeking Creative Rest

    Seeking Creative Rest

    I successfully defended my dissertation a few weeks ago. I am now “Doctor.” The defense went wonderfully, and it was a really positive end to a very long… experience. (I hate the word “journey” when used to describe doctoral programs.) I thought after I finished my dissertation, I would have a lot more time to…

  • Creating Cyanotypes, Creating a Dissertation

    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…

  • 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…