Shayna's graduate thesis is entitled "Color as the Structural Element in Building Form and Creating Forces of Action and Reaction" -- June 1970.  Her hypothesis was that using color as a structural element in this manner could be done even with conflicting and competing colors.

    Click on an image below to see a larger version.

   David and the Angels  7' 6" x 7' 6"    Fountainhead  6' x 6' 8"

1776   6' 8" x 6' 8"                            Gemini  6' 6" x 6' 6"

    The original of this thesis is in the Gelman Library, George Washington University.  Photos by Ida Jervis showing Shayna working on her thesis in her studio are recorded in the Archives of American Artists - Smithsonian Institution.  The files of the Library of the Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian contain copies of this thesis as well as this website.

    For selected quotation from her thesis, click here.
 

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