Naomi Hart
BIO
Naomi Hart grew up in the Northern Wilds of Minnesota where the natural world became her education and her refuge. Hart studied printmaking and book arts culminating in an MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Upstate NY where she combined her love of process with an insatiable need to tell a story.
Hart’s intaglio prints have been exhibited throughout the Midwest and have been chosen for exhibition in Italy and as part of a permanent collection in Indianapolis at the Center for Art’s Non Toxic Print Collection. Naomi has been influential in teaching non-toxic printmaking practices across the Midwest and has consulted with studios in developing safer practices in the printmaking arena.
In 2011 Hart fulfilled a long-standing dream to begin a formal exploration into the world of encaustic painting through a mentorship in Minneapolis MN. This diverse and expansive realm has become her home. Since she began exhibiting her encaustic work in 2013 she has received numerous awards and opportunities for group and solo exhibitions throughout the Midwest.
Check the calendar to find Hart's work in a show or gallery near you!
Naomi Hart, Artist photo by Mark Tessier
Artist Statement
As an artist I am a storyteller and a time traveler.
I have survived addiction and abuse, and come out of the fire into a place of hope and joy with an insatiable need to embrace life with honesty and and passion.
I use a mix of media in my artwork to tell my story. I develop layers of realism, design, deconstruction, and symbolism to distort and expose the inner landscape of my experience, seeking the connective threads between my story and yours.
My work is an expression of my fascination with a sense of placement and convergence. Especially in the moments where life meets death, where sorrow meets joy, or where despair meets hope.
I am constantly in pursuit of exposing “the now”. I find "this moment" alluring and elusive, and as such, cloaked in mystery and ripe with potential; a place to find holiness. To sojourn in “this moment”, where pasts and futures color and collide could be to find truth, or magic, or purest hope.
Ever the optimist, I prefer to embrace the darkness and hold to hope.
Naomi in the Minneapolis Encaustic Studio