AUTHOR=Hocking Ian TITLE=Portrait of an Artist as Collaborator: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of an Artist JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=10 YEAR=2019 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00251 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00251 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

The subjective experience of being an artist was examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), focusing on the perspective of the artist but interpreted by me, a psychologist, from my perspective as an artistic collaborator. Building upon a literature that has hitherto focused on clinical, elderly, or vulnerable participants, I interpreted superordinate themes of Process (Constraint, Playfulness, Movement) and Identity (The Ill-Defined Artist, Becoming, Mixing Identities, Choosing an Identity, Calling, Collaboration, and Outsider). These themes are broadly similar to the existing literature, but emphasise identity while de-emphasising self reflection and the need to become an “insider.”