Melissa Auberty received her BFA from SMU in 1979. After graduation, Auberty worked as a graphic designer and photographer for American Airlines. She directed and later owned galleries in New York City and Los Angeles. For the past 20 years she has concentrated on her art - paintings and works on paper - inspired by the rugged landscape of her native Texas. Auberty’s iconic Blue Horses are found in many corporate and private collections. "My work springs from the touch and smell of Texas soil - a childhood spent immersed in nature - animals, antlers, rocks, bones. I do not, however, seek to recreate, but to generate an image that speaks a new language – one that the viewer responds to through a kind of sense memory. I call myself an abstract painter because in truth that is what all artists are. We can only invent with our hands and hearts what is intrinsically true – to us – and what is profoundly significant beyond our own identity."