“When I started this work,” she says,
“I had no visualization of how it would
evolve or where it would end. This
element of surprise makes abstract
art exciting for me.” She under-
painted a 140-lb. textured Canson
Mountboard in several overlapping
sections of acrylic, using various tech-
niques, including monoprint, linocut
and the use of textured materials,
such as bubble wrap, to apply paint.
Once the acrylics dried, she applied
multiple layers of soft pastels, varying
her strokes and marks. She let some
areas and textures of these layers
show through, using fixative sparingly
and, ultimately, covering the entire
surface with pastel powder.
As the name A Song for the
Moonlight implies, Shafey conceived
of her piece in terms of auditory sen-
sations. “All my senses were geared
toward creating a well-orchestrated
visual song or symphony for the
moonlight,” she says. “I wanted the
painting to be ‘heard’ as well as
visually perceived. I was constantly
juggling all the primary picture
elements, such as composition,
color, tones, shapes, lines and mark-
making textures, so that they sang
harmoniously and created the mood
I was aiming for.” She struggled with
reconciling a sense of movement and
energy with one of calm and stillness.
“This painting was an exercise in the
art of problem-solving—how to add
and subtract from the painting until
it worked,” she says. “This is what
makes the journey of abstract paint-
ing so intriguing to me—the hope
of creating a visual experience that’s
a feast for the eyes, mind and soul.”SECOND PLACE
Cory Goulet
Cory Goulet (corygouletart.com),
from the Pacific coastal city of
Everett, Wash., can see, in retrospect,
that her marks reflect her feelings
about the current effects of climate.
She notes, however, that she created
the piece without a premeditated
topic or message. “It became Climate
Change,” she says. “When I look at
this piece now, it inspires me to think
and work on doing more to help
prevent negative effects of climate
change, both personally and profes-
sionally as an artist.”
Interestingly, although the idea
of inspiring a negative-to-positive
turnaround wasn’t preplanned, the
concept is inherent in the painting’s
surface. “This particular painting
began from the ashes of a failedpainting,” says Goulet. After wash-
ing the unsuccessful piece down with
a garden hose, she was surprised to
find a “ghost of pretty color and a few
interesting shapes,” which became the
underpainting of her winning piece.
Goulet typically works on a large
surface, which allows her the freedom
of expansive arm and body move-
ments. She seeks out texture in every
conceivable form, starting with her
pastel surface. “UART is my go-to
paper/board of choice. The grittier
the better. I’ve lost many fingerprints
over the years,” she says. Visual
texture arises from her repertoire of
mark-making techniques—diluting
pastels with alcohol for an under-
painting; mixing ground pastels with
water and then spattering, flicking
or pouring the mixture; scratching
in and out of her pastel marks—to
mention a few. Her favored pastels
include Diane Townsend Terranges—
large pastel blocks containing ground
pumice, offering still more texture. In
Climate Change, the additional media
of pencil, flecks of ink and clear gesso
(dried with a heat gun) make their
appearance, the latter contributing
yet another form of texture.
Although Goulet tends to work
reactively, from one creative moment
to the next, she does concede toArtistsNetwork.com 83