Plainfield South graduate wins 2 national art awards

Plainfield South High School 2019 graduate Emma Jones recently earned national recognition from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for her artwork.

Jones is one of five students nationwide who won a New York Life Scholarship gold medal. She also received an American Visions gold medal.

Jones won the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards medals for her colored pencil artwork titled “Water” and “Suffocation.”

She also earned a $1,000 scholarship and attended the National Ceremony with her family June 6 at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Jones’ colored pencil drawings were chosen from almost 340,000 works of art and writing submitted.

Jones thought it was a mistake when she received the email stating she won.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said in a news release from Plainfield School District 202. “It felt great to be noticed; it was really cool.”

Jones remembers she always liked drawing but didn’t get serious about it until middle and high school.

Denise Albright, Jones’ art teacher at Plainfield South, also attended the ceremony in New York. Jones is the first Plainfield South student to win two national awards in one year, she said.

“We have had amazing talent (at Plainfield South), but [Jones] really pushes boundaries in her art,” Albright said in the news release.

Albright began teaching Jones her sophomore year. It was then that they began talking about advancing to the Scholastic contest in New York, Albright said.

“I told her we were going to New York,” Albright said in the news release. “It was always an end goal.”

Jones plans to attend the Savannah College for Art and Design in Georgia this fall.

Jones is the fourth Plainfield South student to win a national award and the first since 2012, Albright said.