"I started this painting with the hope to illustrate what is happening in China right now," said gold winner Michelle Chen from Canada. Her piece, titled "Shake," portrays the scene in a modern Chinese jail house, where a practitioner of the spiritual practice Falun Gong had been beaten because of the Chinese regime's campaign to eradicate the faith. Though the theme is dark, ultimately, the painting's message is one of hope.

In the scene the woman, dressed in white, levitates in meditation as her jailers look on in shock. "She is so beautiful even though she's been shackled. She's serene and compassionate," Chen said. "Some of the police are shaken, one is kneeling in reverence, and others are afraid of what they see."