Scientific theories are developed to explain origins and mechanisms of existing phenomena, this also applies to the field of psychology. To identify phenomena, researchers collect data and identify specific patterns providing evidence for them. This presupposes that the researcher already knows about qualitative properties of the phenomena before they develop a theory to explain it. To investigate how researchers come to this knowledge, the present study adopts a qualitative framework to explore how researchers in psychology come to understand a phenomenon through different ways of knowing. A semi-structured interview was conducted to understand how researchers draw relations between observation, data, phenomenon and theory. Using an art-based approach, the participant was encouraged express their mental representation of the phenomenon through art materials, such as clay. Thematic analysis was performed on verbal data in relation to describing the material interface leading to four emergent themes surrounding 1) Context, 2) Representation of Phenomena, 3) Theories and Theorising and 4) Observation, Expression and Data.