Noel Hart’s deliciously colored glass vessels abound with abstract images stemming from the rich sub-tropical rainforest of Australia where he lives with his wife, Helene, and many more wild parrots than humans. Next to his house sits an aviary with open doors where wild birds may enter for food and water but are free to come and go. Two birds have become long term residents. The choice of this rural area outside of Bryon Bay in Northern New South Wales allows his art work to be continuously informed by his experience with biodiversity.

“There are just so many possibilities” states Hart. This aptly describes the philosophy he lives in his life, work and art.  After earning his diploma for art and design, Hart traveled throughout Australia, Europe, Asia, Central America and the USA. He worked as an art therapist, photographer, screen printer, graphic designer, a rigger in the construction industry, a pilot and established a theatre company while continuing to create and exhibit his studio art work. His art has also taken many different forms, primarily photography, painting and glass. In 1990, Hart’s passion for glass began when invited to be a designer and fabricator for a well know glass artist, Colin Heaney, in his Byron Bay studio.

After working with Heaney and observing other glass artists in his native Australia, Hart  states “I couldn’t see what I was looking for.” He was bothered “that the constraints of technique could easily overwhelm ideas.” The glass artists he observed were not using molten glass as a painting medium to the degree he desired, so “I set out to discover an authentic creative expressive process for myself.” After attending a lecture on Egyptian Coreformed Glass, in which little technique is involved, Hart was inspired to begin experimenting by applying layer after layer of hot molten glass to a clear bubble as a painter lays down paint with his brush. “It’s very much like painting (at least the way I paint) –the glass is really like hot paint with someone else loading the brush and bringing it to me to apply to the canvas (the bubble).” There is a close relationship between Hart’s paintings and his vessels. Both have a sense of liquid movement, of flight, of puddling and dripping color that is about to spin out of control. The vessels are filled with the wild energy of birds in flight and the uncanny color combinations found in ornithology. In “Naso at Kakadu” Hart makes even black feel vibrant by the surrounds of red, white and vivid yellow. “Ara Preening” is a large masterful vessel filled with an air of arrogance and beauty as if a magnificent bird was in full display. “I’m a painter and my interest lies significantly in the narrative of my work and how it looks, not in how it’s made.  It took me a long time to figure this out.” 

"TOVOI OF CRATER MOUNTAIN"
Blown glass
13 1/2" x 15" x 3 1/2"

Conceptually Hart is interested in life cycles and how they work together. In conversation he always notes the decline in bird and other animal species. “Are new species evolving? – replacing those going extinct? What influence does a recently rapidly evolving species (us) have on other species? I’ve restricted my investigations, for the time being,

"NASO AT KAKADU"
Blown glass
11" x 13" x 2 1/2"

to particular bird species that occur locally along with related species from further afield.” The subject of birds and their habitat has reappeared and disappeared in my work for over 20 years, both quite figuratively and completely lost to abstraction in both the paintings and works in glass.  Besides his usual Parrots, “Ornithology Abstraction” includes Birds of Paradise and Bowerbirds. Hart’s work is not the usual form of documentation for bird species such as a drawing or a photograph, but a kind of invented “other” which appears in abstraction and yet has tangible evidence of its source. Hart refers to this process as designing new species or “hybridize” existing species. “Musschenbroek’s Morph” suggests transfor-mation of this brilliantly colored Lorikeet. The bright yellow glass flows into glowing reds and oranges, the easily identified yellow beak is folded into essence of the bird, making this Hart’s creation. 
 
“The titles of this new work include names given to particular species by indigenous people who live nearby. Not only are the birds endangered but so are the indigenous people and their language, being pushed out by mining and forestry companies.” “Tovoi of Carter Mountain” serves a dual purpose in Harts expression. The word “Tovoi” is a name used by the Gimi people who live around Crater Mountain to refer to a particular species. Since there was no written language, this most likely is a phonetic spelling created by an ornithologist. Crater Mountain, located in Papua New Guinea has been referred to by a mining company as “….an advanced exploration project with potential to host a world class gold deposit containing outstanding drill targets with significant potential for the discovery of a multi-million ounce world class ore body.”

Hart’s choice of location points to another potential sad loss of habitat for human and animal population. 

Hart’s work is a confirmation of our fascination with small creatures that surround us giving movement and sound to our everyday lives. His colors are a celebration of  the gift of surprising and exhilarating color combinations. His loose and sensual shapes that flow into and on top of one another create a continuous sense of movement. And underneath there is a fear that in the future we might lose a critical portion of this if we are not attentive. 

Selected Permanent Collections
Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong
Fujifilm, Tokyo, Japan
Mitsubishi Corporation, Australia 
The National Glass Collection, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery,
......Australia 
Tweed River Art Gallery, Murwillumbah, Australia  

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