Soon after Jim Robertson graduated from his high school in Houston, he served our country for three years—two in Vietnam—then earning his BFA from University of Houston and MFA from University of Texas, Austin. After a beginning in painting and drawing, his interests gradually branched out toward three-dimensional works, and in the early 1990s he took metal working at The Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, welding at Lone Star College and began experimenting with steel and found metal objects. Robertson says, “I spent a lot of time cruising industrial salvage yards and had access to several dumpsters at metal fabrication shops.” A few subjects recur in his work: surrealistic vehicles, fanciful weapons, animals and architectural structure. Other works are conceived from scratch, without found objects, non-objective and more formal in nature, using readily available steel material. An example of this was “Zig Zag,” his bright teal, monolithic sculpture for True North in 2022. His True North 2026 sculpture "Sanctuary" is a creative mashup of architectural icons—Egyptian pyramids, Gothic pointed arches and towering Islamic minarets. With its almost ghostly translucence, the artist has chosen bright teal to shimmer against its natural background. Robertson was Professor of Art at Lone Star College for 29 years and has a full-time studio in Trinity. He’s often spotted cruising the art car scene in his sleek and futuristic stainless steel creation, Jet Car.