Over the course of my PhD, for some reason I have often channelled my frustrations into octopus collage. Below are some of the artworks I have created so far. Credit for the octopus theme must go to a friend of mine who once sent me a text saying “aghh! work is like a giant thrashing octopus…”
Methodological Confusion – Feb 2010
Methodological Confusion was created from water colour and bits of cut out magazines and postcards. I then cut the image out and stuck in on some black card. I created it as a represntation of the thrashing limbs of my methodological struggles.
Full of Feedback
Oops, this one is on it’s side… oh well. Full of Feedback was created using water colour and the chopped up bits of feedback from one of my supervisors. I was so angry with her for the lack of respect she showed me (in general, not just the feedback) that I decided to take the knife to it…
Conversation in My Living Room is an ink drawing with the photocopied heads of five old men being juggled. This was me trying to juggle the perspectives of a bunch of old dead academics. The writing behind the picture is the text of an imagined conversation, should all five of them happen to pop into my living room for a cuppa. It actually really helped me work out how their ideas related.
9 Legs, 9 Lives – Spetember 2010
I like this one. I was feeling so overwhelmed by how much reading I had to do i felt like I needed multiple lives to read it all. And I accidentally drew the octopus with nine legs…
Imperfect Companion – October 2010
Ahh… I think at this point I was in what the Thesis Whisperer refers to as The Valley of Shit…
The Good Ship Thrashing Octopus – January 2011
A PhD – It’s plain sailing obviously…
Blowing Against a Gale – January 2011
Oh, here I am again! Looking down on The Valley of Shit… In this picture I am trying to blow up an inflatable octopus against a strong gale, whilst standing on a mountain. In a fit of supervisory frustration I drew a picture of my supervisor at his computer and stuck him under the mountain. I wish I could remember why I was so mad at him…
And that’s all I have scanned in for now… more to come as the adventures continue…
