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About the Jurors

Jerry Austin completes his eleventh year as chair of the UNT Department of Studio Art this spring where he heads an accomplished faculty. Under Austin’s direction, studio art programs have grown and expanded into several buildings across the UNT campus and new programs in Watercolor and Electronic Media have been added to the traditional stable of studio offerings. Austin himself is a ceramic artist and has directed the Clay Program at UNT for the past twenty seven years. Both a functional potter and a ceramic sculptor, Austin’s current work deals with time tracking and the illusion of monumental scale in basin or bowl forms.

Melodee Martin Ramirez received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the University of Dallas in May 1998. She also holds a Master of Arts degree from Texas Women’s University in Studio Arts, with a major in Ceramics, minor in Painting. Her work is in the Belo Collection, Lexus Corporation, and The Communities Foundation of Texas Art Collection funded by the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation in Dallas in addition to private collections. She has been a full time faculty member in the Art Department, teaching Art History, Art Appreciation, with Painting and Figure Drawing studio classes some semesters, since the fall semester of 2003 at North Lake College, and adjunct professor since 1998.

Anita Robbins received her art degree from Brigham Young University. She is the owner of Studio Art House, fine art academy and gallery in Flower Mound and Southlake.  In addition to teaching art, Anita does corporate commission paintings, book cover illustrations and gallery work. She studied painting in Canada under the instruction of watercolour Masters Willie Wong and Marilyn Kinsella and has received multiple awards both locally and nationally for her work.