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Verna Hart 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. Says Hart, "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, the subjects themselves have acclaimed her work. 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." Hart’s works are also featured in Spike Lee's film, Mo Better Blues. Hart is strongly influenced by other painters as well, 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 his death, Hart created two monoprints 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 Absolut vodka commission, Wego jazz logo award, and the Romare Bearden memorial scholarship. Says hart of her art, "my works are visual evidence of a painter’s deep reflection of the natural rhythms of jazz." Begin slide show