Karine Rashkovsky, a doctoral student in York’s Graduate Program in Education, recently won the People’s Choice Award in the first annual City of Vaughan 2007 Juried Art Exhibition for her oil painting Impassioned.
Over 141 original works of art were submitted for consideration by 74 emerging and established visual artists from Vaughan and the surrounding area. The entries, which were displayed at the City Playhouse Theatre in Vaughan, consisted of a wide range of art including oil, acrylic, watercolour and photography. A professional panel of three jurors chose 26 works for display in the month-long 
exhibition which took place April 23 to May 27. The jurors also assigned a Best in Show and a Reserve Best in Show from the selected items. The public was encouraged to visit the exhibition and cast their vote for the People’s Choice Award for their favourite work.
Left: Rashkovsky’s painting Impassioned
"This initiative helps promote the arts and provides an opportunity for us to view the creative talent of visual artists in our community," said Vaughan Mayor Linda Jackson.
Rashkovsky said that her scholarly interests and art both question and reflect the deconstruction of various perspectives, including: feminism, existentialism, social justice, and the separation of self from nature – revealing the philosophical influences and inclinations of her own life.
"The motivation behind Impassioned rests in an attempt to involve the viewer in a struggle between reservation and eruption, with a view towards that which dislodges comfort and instills the sensual," said Rashkovsky. "The work delves into the area of the psyche where commonplace sensuality presents itself as both extraordinary and bound to nature."
The Juried Art Exhibition was sponsored by the City of Vaughan with support from the Council-appointed Vaughan Arts Advisory Committee. Several of the works from the exhibition will be selected by the city to be included in Vaughan’s future municipal art collection while others will be displayed in public viewing spaces.