46 | MAY 9 • 2024
J
N
ARTS&LIFE
ART
A
n image from Naomi
Hart’s artistic works,
made using beeswax
with drawing and print skills
falling into the category of
encaustics, has been chosen to
go on promotional materials
for this year’s Art Birmingham.
The event, held May 11-12
in surrounding areas of Shain
Park and originally known
as the Birmingham Fine Art
Festival, is early in this year’s out-
door art fair season. With Mother’s
Day being celebrated on May 12,
children are encouraged to attend
a fair workshop to show them how
to make gifts for moms relevant to
their special day.
Hart, who lives in Illinois and
has learned about Judaism through
her father’s heritage, said she always
seemed to draw, with artistry
becoming a way of dealing with
trauma faced early in life. After
her children advanced in age, she
learned new artistic methods and
began attending the summer fairs.
“I use beeswax in a super unique
manner,
” said Hart, whose images
often show natural environments
and who holds a printmaking
master’s degree from the Rochester
Institute of Technology in upstate
New York.
“I use layers and layers of draw-
ings and prints mixed into beeswax.
It’s really interesting.
”
Hart, who lived in Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula when she was
young, has shown her work in the
Ann Arbor and East Lansing art
fairs, but this will be her first time
in Birmingham, which is in its 43rd
year. The one image to be featured,
“The Quorum,
” is focused on yel-
low water lilies and water animals
and insects attracted to the flowers.
“I come from a family of teach-
ers, and my goal had been to teach,
”
said Hart, 65, who works in a home
studio and continues her interest in
the environment with a plant gar-
den on the property of her brother’s
farm. “When I graduated, I was in
my 40s and just was too old to be
a considered candidate for a new
hire.
“Since 2005, I’ve been focused
on a professional career as an artist.
I began focusing on encaustics in
2013. It feeds my desire to commu-
nicate artistically. I’m really fulfilled
with this medium.
”
Although Hart maintains a web-
site (naomi4art.com) from which
she sells some work, most of her cli-
entele reach her at 15 or 20 annual
fairs. She travels across the United
States to participate as do many of
the artists showing their works.
“I like the face-to-face contacts,
”
said Hart, who will also show her
work in East Lansing this season.
“
Art fairs are galleries without barri-
ers, and everybody is welcome.
”
The season gets underway this
weekend in Birmingham.
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Works by Naomi Hart,
clockwise from bottom:
“The Pull Of A Memory,”
“The Quorum,” “She Held
The Moment.”