SILER CITY, N.C. — Maggie Thornton, a sophomore at Jordan-Matthews High School, was named winner of the school’s second-annual holiday card art contest during an announcement made on JMArts social media.
Her painting, “Winter Solace,” will appear on holiday cards sold by JMArts, the Jordan-Matthews Arts Foundation, to raise money for JM artists. Thornton received an award certificate and $100 for the rights to reproduce her work.
Holiday cards feature the painting on the front with a blank area inside for personal messages. The back lists the name of the artist and her work, along with a very short artist statement about the painting.
JM art teacher Rahkie Mateen-Mason said “Winter Solace” was selected on the basis of artistic merit and its expression of the moment we are currently experiencing in a global pandemic. “The work expressed both the sense of isolation many of us feel right now and hope and comfort that the holidays will bring,” Mateen-Mason said in the award announcement.
Preorders for JMArts holiday cards will be accepted online at JMArtsHolidayCards.com starting November 1. Cards will be sold online in packets of 15 cards and 17 envelopes for $15, a price that also includes domestic shipping. The domain forwards to a Google form, where you can place your order and pay online with a credit card or through the mail by cash or check. Cards also will be on sale soon after that for $12 per packet, cash or check only, at the NC Arts Incubator in downtown Siler City.
More information about JMArts, including a schedule of upcoming arts events and information on membership, is available online at JMArts.org.
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Artist Maggie Thornton accepts the 2020 JMArts Holiday Card Award. Cards featuring her work will be sold in November to raise money for arts students at the school.
“Winter Solace,” the featured painting on this year’s JMArts holiday cards, captures the sense of isolation many feel during life in the pandemic as well as a sense of hope and comfort that the holidays will bring.