Thomas Attebery

Staff Writer

Every year, ISU holds a contest to design the annual ISU holiday card. This year, the award was given to Dylan Childress, a senior art student graduating this semester. In a rare, but not entirely unprecedented turn of events, this was his second year winning the contest.

“I’ve been here eight years, and this has happened once before in my time here,” said Allyson Johnson, Coordinator of Special Events. “But this has never happened before I believe: we actually have the same first place and second place winners as last year.”

Justin Anderson was the winner of the second place prize of $500. The first place winner receives $1000, and the card they designed is sent to thousands of ISU families and supporters.

The contest was started by Laura Vailas, wife of ISU President Arthur Vailas, and she remains very involved in it, including acting as one of the judges.

“I was pretty excited about it,” Childress said. ‘I didn’t expect to win again this year. I was very flattered.”

Childress submitted two drawings, and the winning design was of a Bengal tiger staring into a burning candle with a sprig of holly attached to the candle holder.

“The Bengal tiger is so iconic to the university obviously, and it needed a light source in the painting, so I went with a candle because they are very Christmas-y,” he said.

Childress found out he had won when he was away with his wife for their anniversary.

“My wife and I had taken a trip to Yellowstone for the day, and every time we had service I would check my phone. It wasn’t until we were on our way home and my wife checked her phone that she saw the email,” Childress said. “She got really excited and started screaming and because I was driving I freaked out because I couldn’t see it. So that was fun.”

After graduation, Childress said he is planning on continuing to study art. He wants to go to graduate school, but said he isn’t sure yet where he will be going.

Judges of the contest always include First Lady Vailas, a representative from ASISU, an alumni representative, a faculty member from the art department and the director of ISU Marketing and Communications.

The roughly 25 submissions received each year come from a mix of art and non-art majors, and the winners have also been similarly mixed. According to Johnson, the judging process is exciting.

“I love it! Our whole office gets excited when the paintings arrives,” she said. “Everyone kind of ‘ooos’ and ‘aaahs’ and picks their favorites. It’s fun. I really like to do it.”