Westford Academy senior Kate Shaughnessey received a silver medal in the 2015 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards presented by the nonprofit organization Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, placing her in the top 1% of student artists across the country. Out of 320,000 applicants, Shaughnessey was one of only 2,400 to receive a National Medal.

A number Westford Academy students entered the competition and five of them received the Gold Key regional award, going on to the national judgement in NYC. Out of that group, Shaughnessey was the only one to receive a national medal, and is also one of three total WA students to ever receive the award.

“It was interesting to find out because I wasn’t thinking that I was going to go very far at first, but then I found out that I’d gotten all the way to nationals. It was… surprising,” said Shaughnessey. “It overall is really awesome, because I’ll continue to get teachers and students to congratulate me on this and they’ll stop me in the hallway, and it’s really cool.”

The piece that earned her this honor is a 16 by 20 pencil drawing of a girl walking on railroad tracks, pictured from behind with light shining on her figure. It was also featured as one of fourteen pieces in the 2015-2016 WA Art Calendar.

“In doing the picture, I really thought that the railroad tracks, having a person interacting with it, just the angle of it, I just thought it was perfect how she was framed in it,” said Shaughnessey.

The drawing took her five weeks of class time as well as several hours at home to complete, and she nearly missed the deadline for the calendar due to her attention to detail and proportion. However, she did not lose her characteristic attention to detail even as she ran out of time and had to bring the picture home, instead working for several hours to complete the background and shading.

Shaughnessey’s art teacher Lisa Bolotte noted the detail in lighting and composition that made her piece stand out, and are traits of her art in general. Although she often takes more time than other students to complete work, her finished drawings are always exact in proportion and technique.

“She is very meticulous in that she won’t rush through any project. As an artist, she has a really great eye for composition […] and the ability to render three-dimensional forms on flat surfaces as well, and using values to create those forms,” said Bolotte.

As Shaughnessey is the one of three students in WA’s history to get to nationals, Bolotte is proud of Shaughnessey’s art and excited to see one of her students reach such a high level.

“It’s beautifully lit, and it’s an interesting perspective because you’re down low, looking up at this person who’s on the tracks. So it’s not a typical portrait,” said Bolotte. “It’s an honor, I’m proud of Kate. To get to that level is really exciting.”

Shaughnessey, who began drawing in seventh grade, believes she has improved greatly over the past few years in realism, technique, and composition thanks to her art classes at WA. She plans to pursue higher education in illustration. She also mentions how her art has helped her in her general worldview.

“Art has definitely made me more open-minded,” said Shaughnessey. “I’ve started to look at things in a different way, look at stuff now in a more artsy view […] it puts me in a different mindset.”