WAURIKA — Shannon Smith’s oil painting, Stage IV, was picked as People’s Choice in a recent art show, but having cancer is not a choice.

When she set out to create it as a representation of famed bullfighter Rex Dunn’s battle with cancer, she had no idea just how strong emotions would become in that effort.

Stage IV, a 30-inch by 50-inch painting, began as a photograph for reference purposes only, taken by Smith. It grabbed the People’s Choice Award and Judge’s Honorable Mention, in the Waurika Fine Arts Festival in October, a juried exhibit judged by Wichita Falls Museum & Art curator Danny Bills.

Few people viewing the artwork had any idea that it was more than just a bullfighter fending off a bull. Looking closer, the brush strokes, the colors, indicate the intensity of the painting.

Shortly after Smith traveled to Ada to photograph Dunn’s bull, El Matador — bearing the brand 0tt, in action, she learned one of the most important people in her life was diagnosed with cancer.

“I found out that my Dad (Steve Goza) also had Stage IV cancer. Rex also was stage four,” she said.

Her idea was preconceived, but at the time she was unaware her father, who is the same age as Dunn, would also be diagnosed with cancer in the same stage.

“Shannon is a good friend of mine. She went to the bullfights that we put on over there,” Dunn said.

“She told me she was going to do a painting, but then I’d never heard much about it. She said something about stage four, and I thought it had to do with her art class, like the grade or level she was in.”

Dunn didn’t see the painting until about two weeks ago.

“I was overwhelmed with it,” he said. He asked Smith what she was calling it. Yet still he didn’t realize the connection of “Stage IV.”

“She said stage four and it never clicked. She did a tremendous job on it and she is very talented,” Dunn said.

Once the meaning of the painting was made clear, words were lost to him.

“I think this is a piece that everyone should see,” Dunn said. “It’s a fight for life, that’s what I used to do as a bullfighter, and now.”

Dunn was diagnosed in 2007 with Stage IV. and he said if he’d just listened to the doctors, he probably would have died in May of this year.

“If you lay down and give up that’s what will happen. Cancer is a mental deal, it works on your head and if you keep positive thoughts and keep the will to live and not give up, that has more to do with it than any medicine,” Dunn said.

He also attributes his belief to God and having family, wife Tracie, and two children, along with friends like Smith, as the positive forces in his life. Smith said that Dunn set it up so she could go watch the bullfights and photograph them from the platform at the arena.

“I think that it’s really important, for an artist, that a piece show a life experience in some way,” she said.

Doing that was important to Smith so she could better grasp the concept, she said.

“You have an uncontrollable force coming at you,” she said about the bullfight and the cancer.

“It’s going to get you or it’s not. It’s a fight. Rex said it’s the coolest bullfighting piece he’s ever seen in his life,” she said.

“This has been a big bump in the road for all of us. I think the bullfight is a better analogy of what the fight for your life can be like, for anyone with those types of illnesses, the reality is like a bull coming at you. It’s a sad reality.”

Smith’s husband, Macky, helped her build the frame and stretch the canvas. She said they’ve been experimenting with various frames and bases for her artwork. This one took them a day to build. The actual painting took her about 15 hours over a two-week period.

Smith, who graduated this last year from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha, has a distinctly identifiable quality to those who are familiar with her work.

It borders on a realistic, abstract, impressionist blend that she credits a professor for giving her the freedom to explore. She started her education at USAO in 2001, then took a break to move to Missouri, get married and have a child, Grady, who is now 3 1/2 years-old. He’s also one of her favorite subjects.

Smith returned to Oklahoma and her studies at USAO in 2007, completing the requirements for her bachelor of fine arts earlier this year. Because she pursued a fine arts degree, the course load was heavier, with 152 hours total, and 29 of those advanced. Studies also included business and marketing, a priority she said, for artists wanting to be successful.

“Stage IV” has only been in two shows — Waurika, and an Oklahoma City show. The piece will be on display at the Christian Crossroads Life Center, near the Jefferson County Hospital in Waurika. She has no plans to sell it anytime soon. Smith admits she’s just starting out in the professional aspect. In the 2008 Waurika show, Smith’s “Sanctuary Drop Off” won. She sold it this year at the Momentum Oklahoma City art show.

Momentum, held both in OKC and Tulsa, is for Oklahoma artists under age 30 and considered a tough competition, with hundreds of applicants. The Momentum Tulsa show only accepted 60 artists this year. Smith’s “Crown It” was accepted and is much more lighthearted than “Stage IV.”

“I had all these people giving me the purple Crown Royal bags, I guess to make a blanket. I decided I’m not going to waste them on a blanket, so I made a canvas out of them,” she said. Then she painted a still life of the whiskey and shot glasses thinking about how it’s a good winter whiskey and how it would be something you would enjoy with friends and family.

School was extremely important in her growth as an artist, she noted.

“On the creative side, they really help you understand how to develop your concept on what you want your work to say. To figure out creatively your style, and learn how to do it the right way,” she emphasized. “As you develop more and more, they give you more freedom and help you determine what your art is trying to speak.

“It’s important in my opinion for art to have a voice.”

Her artist’s statement, which she wrote for her portfolio at USAO, even reflects this — “These minor and major life experiences, depending on how they are perceived, inspire my work and provide volumes for the voice of my art.”

And for Smith, whether it’s drawing a picture of her son playing on the piano, or painting stills, or bringing to life the courage of a bullfighter in the ring, it’s obvious her art has much to say.

At least, the people who view it think so.