In 2024, I went back to the same university where I had taken my undergraduate course in Advertising over 20 years earlier. The old campus, a new moment. Everything felt familiar and, at the same time, everything also was different. Including (especially) me.
Getting into a doctorate program was hard. Okay, I think no one expects it to be easy. But for me, the hardest part wasn't moving into a new area, spending years developing a research project, managing emotions during the interviews or overcoming the frustration of the unsuccessful attempts. The hardest part was understanding - accepting, actually - that a doctorate was necessary.
For someone who teaches at a university and just finished a master's degree, getting a doctorate is the “next step” to grow. But, in mid-2017, I wanted to grow in other directions: I wanted to dedicate myself to drawing, to strengthen my portfolio, to find a creative identity. And the journey as a researcher seemed to be taking me down a different path - somehow, I felt “less of an artist”.
So, after my master’s degree, I went to study drawing. I learned fundamentals, refined techniques and built a body of work. Little by little, I felt like I was filling a gap in my education, paving my creative path.
Growing as an artist helped me grow as a drawing teacher too… although this growth, so significant in practice, didn’t do much to help me “officially” advance in the so-called academic career.
Despite this, I felt fulfilled by being able to nurture my artistic practice as part of my personal and professional identity.
Then, one day, my son was born. And everything changed. In mid-2021, a need for planning the future was screaming loudly. And the doctorate echoed in tune with these plans. Fatherhood can really put a lot of things into perspective.
But I still wanted a path that would allow me to “continue being an artist”. Would it be possible to embark on a new academic journey without distancing myself from art? When I first contacted the professor who became my advisor, I risked being assertive: “I want to do a research that dialogues with my drawing practice”. I was lucky enough to receive the answer: “I’m in!”
That’s how I began to study about person-environment relationships. The purpose of my research is to allow me to draw “live” in different places and investigate how the creative process is conditioned by the experience of the environments with which we interact.
A practice of "in situ sketching" in the ambience of the campus
And why Psychology? This may not be such an obvious area for those seeking a doctorate that dialogues with art. But the obvious paths are not always the ones that answer what we seek. What I saw was that the “science of the soul” makes it possible for us to look at all the issues that make us human - including art. On this journey, I am grateful to have met people who saw me back, welcomed me, respected me. I have learned a lot. Not only about the world of research, but about opening up and accepting, about allowing myself to be surprised and about overcoming challenges. We are still in the beginning, but I have felt that there is a fertile place to explore my ideas.
Is it possible that my paths in art and research may converge?
Want to follow my updates? Subscribe to my newsletter.