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DALLAS (SMU) – Anna Membrino, a first-year Master of Fine Arts student at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, has been named one of three national winners of the 2010 Canvas Artist Series Contest sponsored by Hyatt Hotels & Resorts and Folio Fine Wine Partners.��

The contest gave accredited art students across the U.S. the opportunity to design a signature wine label for Canvas, a wine brand created by Folio Fine Wine Partners exclusively for Hyatt. Students were asked to submit an original work depicting the characteristics of one of the three Canvas varietals, including cabernet sauvignon, merlot and chardonnay.

Membrino won for her design of the merlot label. She created a watercolor drawing of three grapes on a vine, the middle of which has burst open. “I’d read the description of the wine, which was ‘lush, fruity and bold,’ and started thinking about the idea of a small grape that was literally exploding with flavor, too tiny to contain it all,” she said.

�� Anna Membrino's Winning Entry

The three contest winners were selected by public online voting and a panel of judges comprised of Folio and Hyatt executives, as well as other wine industry professionals. In addition to having their artwork displayed on the Canvas bottle, each winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship from Hyatt. The winning entries can be viewed at .

Membrino studies painting in the Meadows Division of Art. Her entry reflected her artistic interests; fruit is a favorite subject of Membrino’s, whose depictions of ripe figs, pomegranates and blackberries can also be seen on her website ().

The Canvas brand was created for Hyatt in 2007 by Folio Fine Wine Partners, a Napa Valley wine company owned by the Michael Mondavi family. The limited-edition Canvas wine bottles will be available at all participating Hyatt properties throughout the U.S. beginning this month.

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