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Verna Hart
"Like the jazz musician, I seek to say something personal and spontaneous.
The energy that's in the music, I expose on canvas. It's important that you
not only see my work, but feel it too ... and, like the music, when it hits
you ... move!"
Verna Hart has been painting since age 5, melding her artistic ability with
her love of music. "I always wanted to be a musician. I studied the piano,
and I still try to play."
A native New Yorker, born in Harlem and now a resident of Brooklyn, Hart was
exposed to jazz at an early age. She often takes her sketchpad to a jazz
club to capture the mood live. Because of her persistence, her work has been
acclaimed by the subjects' themselves. Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie suggested
the title "Dizzy Swinging" for a piece she created during a session at
Symphony Space. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis has used one of her pieces to
illustrate the cover of his album, "I Heard You Twice the First Time." And
her works are featured in Spike Lee's film, Mo Better Blues.
Hart also is strongly influenced by other painters, especially Romare
Bearden. She met Bearden when she lived near his studio and would go by to
watch him paint. He gave her encouragement and purchased some of her work.
After Bearden’s death, Hart created two mono prints to honor him, "Blues for
Bearden I" and II," depicting a jazz trio outlined in black.
A trained artist and arts educator, Hart holds two masters degrees that she
earned simultaneously from Pratt Institute (Master of Fine Arts) and Bank
Street College of Education (Master of Science in Education/Visual Arts.)
She has received several art awards, including the Absolute Vodka
Commission, WEGO Jazz Logo Award, and the Romare Bearden Memorial
Scholarship. Say’s Hart of her art, "My works are visual evidence of a
painter’s deep reflection of the natural rhythms of jazz."
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