“Art is a rainbow.”

Welcome to my art website, MarciaHart.art. This site is a home for my art, whether it is traditional media (painting (acrylic, watercolor), printmaking (etching, woodcut, linoleum cut, serigraph), drawing (graphite, colored pencil, pastel, charcoal, ink), collage, or digital media (ie. created on a computer device using software). Through this venue I am delighted to share my art work with you.

I am setting up this website as my commitment to myself to work on my art, to nurture my creative side, on a regular basis. Recently one of my art professors from Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina, passed away. His name was Thomas Earl Flowers (February 17, 1928–December 13, 2020). He taught me Design, Drawing, and Modern Art (19th and 20th Century Art). He was an accomplished artist with art works included in museum collections across the country. He was posthumously awarded the 2021 (South Carolina) Governor’s Awards for the Arts in lifetime achievement. He taught at Furman for thirty years (1959–1989), where he served as Department Chairman for most of those years. He also served as one of the chaperones when a group of us from the Art Department took a trip to Washington, DC, in 1976. He created art until the end of his earthly life. Seeing his estate art works really inspired me. I had been away from art for a number of years. I regretted that I had not worked harder on my art and learned even more from my teachers. He seemed to be saying to me, “Marcia, it’s not too late. You just need to do it. Just draw, paint, do something. Begin. You can still learn. Bring your gear. Design the page….”

A Little Background

I began my college years as a studio art major. At Furman you could have a concentration in studio art or in art history. Following an academic term In Paris, France, I switched my concentration from studio art to art history. While in Europe I had fallen in love with Gothic cathedrals and museum masterpieces. I took courses in art history, drawing, design, painting, and printmaking. At some point after college graduation I stopped creating art. It became enough for me to come home from work, fix my dinner, watch some TV, shower, and go to bed. The following morning I would get up, get dressed, grab something to eat, drive to work, and the cycle repeated itself. During this period I was employed by non-profit arts organizations and later by major banks. At the arts organizations I was immersed in the world of the arts; yet it didn’t mean that I was a practicing artist. In the world of global finance I felt that I had landed on a foreign planet so different was the corporate environment from that of the non-profits. I am not sure of all the reasons why I quit creating art. Physical fatigue and depression were likely part of it. I found out later that I have an underactive thyroid, which can cause both fatigue and depression. I think, too, that part of it was fear of failure. What if my art was never good enough? What if I was never good enough? As long as I didn’t try to create, then I could always imagine that perfect or almost perfect painting in my head.

Ultimately I became interested in making websites and web graphics. Somehow that felt “safer.” If the graphic or site wasn’t as good as I had wanted it to be, I could always blame the software or the computer! I still remembered though how it was to sketch and paint… the smudging of the pastel or charcoal with my finger, the dipping of my brush into the watercolor water, the very physical component of making art. So now I am ready to do it.

Finding Art Again

I will do it whether or not the art is successful or not. It takes practice, and I am rusty. My arthritic fingers may mean a change or an adaptation in style. That is okay. The French Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste Renoir had arthritis also. I am dedicating this site to all my art teachers — those in elementary (grammar), junior high, and senior high schools, and my college art professors.

Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina: Professors Thomas E. Flowers, Dr. Richard Olof Sorensen; Queens University, Charlotte, North Carolina: Professors George Shealy, Ms. Keating Griffiss; University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina: Professor Maud Gatewood; Central Piedmont Community College, Charlotte, North Carolina: Professors Barbara Kasler, Louis Freeman, Perry Bush; Memphis Academy of Art, Memphis, Tennessee: Burton Callicott… here’s to you! Thank you.

I would be remiss if I were not to mention Mrs. Irma Roberts, who was my third grade teacher at Bethel Grove Elementary School in Memphis, Tennessee. It was she who encouraged my parents to send me to art classes at the Memphis Academy of Art.

Right now there are few pieces of art on my website. That number will increase as I resume my artistic journey. Thank you for visiting my site. Write me if you would like. Hope to see you again soon!

Marcia