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ML Hart has resided in San Diego, California more on than off since the
mid-60s, but has worked and studied in all four corners of the continental United States.
Her initial training was in theatre design, but after several years working as a costume
designer for the stage, Ms. Hart once took a summer job in a law office - and got stuck
there for 15 years. She finally escaped back into the creative world where she took up
cameras and keyboard, moved into the world of opera as a photographer - and she's never
looked back. An accomplished writer as well as a
photographer, Ms. Hart also works as a sculptor, mixed-media artist, and painter.
Exploration is the basis of her work with different materials - she is constantly
seeking mastery of technique without feeling constrained by it. With the photography, she
enjoys the need for constant awareness of technical detail. By way of contrast, painting
is an immediately visceral, emotional process, and she also works with the more tactile
media of papermaking and metalworking. Spending time with each of these diverse media
sharpens her vision in the others.
Ms. Hart was the Photographic Artist-in-Residence at San
Diego Opera for seven years, exploring special projects in photography and designing
program covers for two complete seasons. Her award-winning book, The Art of Making
Opera, received its origins there. In addition to opera singers, ML Hart also shoots
dancers, jazz musicians, and actors to critical and popular acclaim. Her photographs and
articles have been published worldwide; and her photography and other artworks exhibited
in galleries throughout the United States.
In addition to her visual work, Ms. Hart is busy writing:
she is currently finishing a book with photographs and interviews of operatic tenors; a
play about a woman's battle with breast cancer; another play about Homer, the creative
process, and The Iliad; a book of re-telling of opera stories for youngsters; and
an adventure story about a little girl with unruly red curls who gets lost backstage and
ends up in - what else? - an opera or two.
As a frequent guest on radio and television, Ms. Hart
discusses the role of the artist in general and "Opera & the Audience" in
particular from her unique behind-the-scenes viewpoint. She is also a popular
speaker at libraries, clubs, schools and onboard cruise ships. While a member of the San
Diego Press Club, she served as a juror for photography-award competitions.
ML Hart is fully aware of the fact that her audience
completes the loop of the artistic process she begins. That's when art is most successful
for her – when it touches another’s heart and mind. "I want to stay open
to the emotion and passion of my initial ideas and transfer those to the finished
piece," she says. "Always I have the goal of challenging or seducing or
provoking the viewer – I want them to feel, to see in a way that's
new."
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