From off-grid to on-cover: Shark’s Tooth Peak painting snags top prize
Entering Northwestel’s Directory Art Contest was Shirly’s plan from the start. Growing up in the Yukon wilderness along the west arm of Bennett Lake, where she moved in 1976, Shirly says, “We didn’t even have a phone. But we still had Northwestel phone books in our cabin.” The art on the cover always drew the young artist’s eye, and by the age of ten, the seed was planted. For the 2023 contest, she decided it was time:
“It just felt like this was my year, after forty years of waiting for the right time.”
While her winning piece Sky Song is an acrylic and oil landscape painting, you can’t paint this eclectic Yukon artist into a corner, pun intended. From an early age, Shirly set out to explore her world through countless artistic mediums. Beading was one of her earliest pursuits. As a teenager, she gifted her favourite singer, John Denver, with a hand-beaded guitar strap, which he wore in his only autobiographical film Foxfire.
Sky Song – Acrylic & Oil
Portraiture and wildlife painting captured Shirly’s imagination in the following decades. Writing has been a daily companion. She journals, writes poetry, even recently completed a book. For further exploration, she turns to songwriting: “When the music comes over me, it is my highest form of expression.”
The artistic flow doesn’t stop there. Shirly dabbles in carving, stained glass, crocheting, chocolate and jam making, Greek and Indian cooking. When she tells you, “I’ve never known what it is to be bored in my life” … you believe her.
Shirly and her husband Doug
Yet somehow Shirly finds calm in the artistic storm. In fact, if tranquility were a painting, Sky Song might just be it. Her capture of the Tombstone’s Shark’s Tooth Peak – with its softly dancing aurora and muted winter tones – conveys a peace you can almost feel.
“I let the painting decide what direction it wanted to go,” she explains, a coming together of artist and subject. Life, as in art, lived in full colour and full harmony with the natural world that surrounds her.
Those were good instincts, it turns out, as the piece has made its way to the cover of the 2023 Northwestel Directory. It’s the fulfillment of a dream made by a young girl in a cabin in the woods, heeding the call of her phone book … long before she’d ever have a phone. As the winner of the directory art contest, Shirly receives a $5000 prize from Northwestel. You can see more of Shirly’s art on Facebook.
For over 30 years, Northwestel has published rich northern art on the covers of our directories. The land we live in inspires all of us in different ways. From touching family traditions to realistic recreations of arctic landscapes, we admire and celebrate the creativity of those who make up our North.
Meet our 2023 directory art winners:
- Dyan catches first place in this year’s Nunavut Directory Art Contest
- Discover how whistling at the aurora borealis inspired this year’s NWT directory art
Think about submitting your artwork for next year's directory art competition? Visit our Directory art page and keep an eye out for the 2024 contest, opening in September.
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Photography by: Sarah Lewis Photography
