Artist Stephanie Aleman wins JM art contest; work selected for JMArts Holiday Cards

SILER CITY, N.C. — Stephanie Aleman, a junior from Siler City, has been named winner of Jordan-Matthews High School’s fifth-annual holiday art contest.

Her color pencil work, “Love in Winter,” will appear on holiday cards sold by JMArts, the Jordan-Matthews Arts Foundation, to raise money for JM artists. Aleman received an award certificate and $100 for rights to reproduce the work.

Holiday cards feature the drawing on the front with a blank area inside for personal messages. The back lists the name of the artist and work, along with a very short artist statement.

Aleman’s work was chosen, in part, because of how it reflected this year’s theme, “Love Is an Open Door.” That also is the national theme for the United States of Frozen contest that awarded rights to one high school in every U.S. state and territory to produce a statewide school premiere of “Frozen: The Broadway Musical.” JM was selected to produce the North Carolina premiere.

The holiday art contest is just one special event organized around JM’s production of “Frozen,” scheduled for April 19-21. Recently, JMArts and Chatham County Schools announced a series of bilingual preschool story times, where dual-language high school students will read “Disney Frozen II” to students and give each one their own copy of the book.

“We were thrilled with the student response to this year’s contest, due to art teacher Laura Newman’s support of the project,” said JMArts President Rose Pate. “This image beautifully captures the theme of ‘Love Is an Open Door,’ which was also the national theme of the United States of Frozen contest.”

Preorders for JMArts Holiday Cards are now being accepted online at JMArtsHolidayCards.com. Cards are available 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 either with a credit card or Venmo, or send payment by cash or check.

Cards also will be on sale soon for $12 per packet, cash or check only, at Jordan-Matthews High School. Other retail locations will be announced on JMArts social media.

Previous JMArts Holiday Cards featured “The Perfect Winter Morning” by Lilli Otterbach, “Arctic” by Vielka Gonzalez, “Winter Solace” by Maggie Thornton and “Lighthouse on Christmas Eve” by Natalia Pozos Velasco.

More information about JMArts — including a schedule of upcoming arts events, information on membership and more about this spring’s statewide premiere of “Frozen: The Broadway Musical” — is available online at JMArts.org.

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“Love in Winter,” a color pencil drawing by Stephanie Aleman, is the featured work on this year’s JMArts Holiday Cards.

Artist Stephanie Aleman, right, receives her award certificate and $100 check from art teacher Laura Newman, left, and JMArts President Rose Pate. (Photo by Chip Pate)