ISU announces Eilee Fahnestock as 2017 President's Holiday Card Contest winner, Deborah Harris is runner-up
November 2, 2017
POCATELLO — Eilee Fahnestock, a senior from Idaho Falls majoring in anthropology at Idaho State University, won a $1,000 prize for her winning holiday card design that will appear on the front of ISU’s official 2017 holiday greeting card.
Fahnestock used acrylic paint to create an ISU Bengal wearing reindeer antlers pulling a sleigh. She said she always had done art growing up and has taken art classes when she could fit them in her schedule, but hadn’t ever taken a painting class.
“I think it is a great opportunity and I am really glad I heard about it,” Fahnestock said. “I looked at past winners, which usually featured a Bengal or well-known ISU landmarks. I knew I couldn’t do landmarks with precision, but I thought I could do a Bengal, and just thought about how I could make it ‘Christmas’ and unique.”
Deborah Harris, a sophomore secondary education major with an emphasis in art, took home the $500 prize for her second prize-winning submission, for her painting of a Bengal tiger wrapped in a string of Christmas lights.
The ISU President’s Holiday Greeting Card Contest was created by ISU First Lady Laura Vailas and began in 2006. Prize money and printing costs for the contest are provided by a donor each year.
The contest is open to full-time and part-time ISU students and is judged by a committee comprised of representatives from the president’s office, alumni relations, marketing and communications, Associated Students of ISU and the art department.
Submissions were judged on how well they were able to “capture the spirit and beauty of the holiday season while thematically incorporating ISU” as well as other secondary factors decided by the committee after the top designs were determined.