Today we introduce you to another one of our judges for Illustration West 53. (btw, the Call for Entries is ready for you…..just go to www.illustrationwest.org to start entering)
Melanie Reim travels with a sketchbook never far from her side. Melanie lives in NYC where she is an Associate Professor, the former Assistant Dean in the School of Art and Design, and presently, the chairperson of the MFA in Illustration in the School of Graduate Studies at FIT.

As a globally recognized reportage artist, she has traveled to the Dominican Republic, South Africa, Europe and China to document happenings from sugar cane workers to seamstresses in factories. She often teaches and lectures abroad, and her visual journals and teaching methodologies have been the subject of international articles and featured in drawing books.

Her work is part of the US Air Force Art Collection, Washington, DC, as well as other group and solo shows. Melanie is a 2006 Fulbright Scholar, and now serves as Education Chair on the Board of Directors at The Society of Illustrators in New York, and Volunteer Chair for ICON:The Illustration Conference for the third consecutive conference, where she advocates for the love of drawing and design, and the rich and well-rounded education of illustration students everywhere, as they are the future of the industry.