Ragland to be published, receives corporate commission

FALLBROOK — Local artist Jack Ragland was grateful to come in third out of more than 3,500 entrants in the recent national Next Great American Artist Contest. Of course, he had hoped to win and have his painting published and promoted worldwide. He was consoling himself, thinking third wasn’t too bad. Then, about three weeks ago, he received an e-mail from Galaxy of Graphics Publishers saying that because the first three places were so close in the voting, they decided to publish all three.

The art director called Ragland and said they were “very impressed” with the work on his Web site – and...