HVCA Gallery - Canvas’ Dance - ‘SEEING MUSIC’ by Deborah Hoover.

HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP — Meet the artist behind Seeing

Music, painter Deborah Hoover, at a gallery opening 7-9 p.m.  Friday, Feb. 7 at Huron Valley Council for the Arts art center, 205 W. Livingston Road.

Those visiting also can enjoy light refreshments, including wine and appetizers.

The exhibit, which is on display at the gallery Wednesday, Feb. 5 through Saturday, March 1, includes both acrylic and watercolor paintings of musicians making music, Hoover said.

“Contemporary expressionism is how I would describe my style of painting,” she said. “I frequently focus on jazz musicians because the viewer can imagine what type of music is being performed by the posture of the musicians.”

Hoover’s far from an artistic novice.

“Art has always been a part of my life,” she noted. “One of my earliest memories is my dad giving me a pencil and a small note pad so I would sit still in church. It worked and I filled the pages with little drawings. Looking back, it surprises me that at the age of five years old I was recognizing that some pages were (accidentally) better-designed.”

Hoover received graphic arts training at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, worked at a typesetting company and dabbled in painting. She began painting seriously after she “retired” from the typesetting company upon the birth of her first daughter.

She recalled, “My first efforts were a combination of impression and

representational, what I saw was what you got, with some emotion added. As I continued to paint, I found my more successful paintings whether the subject was landscape, floral, figure or abstract were quite energetic and filled with movement. At that time, my husband and I took our seven- and five-year-old daughters to Chicago for a weekend of sightseeing. There was a jazz musician playing a sax on the corner. We donated a couple of dollars and I snapped a few photos. I used those photos as reference material that launched my theme of musical paintings.”

And she was on her way.

“Reading about the Swiss artist Paul Klee, I found his statement, ‘make the invisible visible’ and recognized that statement was what I had been trying to do,” explained Hoover. “We all know what energy, light and movement look like but we can’t hold them in our hands. It is an exciting challenge to capture the essence of life in paint. Using vibrant colors that pulsate with life, designing with line and shapes to create a language is how I attempt to make energy, light and music visible. The more I focused on making the ‘invisible visible,’ the more alive my paintings became.

“My art is a map of where I have been,” she added. “I have combined design, representation, Impressionism, emotional content and making the ‘invisible visible’ to produce paintings that celebrate life.”

Gallery hours for the exhibit, which runs through Saturday, March 3, are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays.

HVCA gallery exhibits  change monthly  and sponsored  throughout the year by The Oakland Press, Iverson’s Foundation, The Kresge Foundation and Genisys Credit Union.

For more information, visit the HVCA’s website at www.huronvalleyarts.org or call the HVCA Art Center at 248-889-8660.

Written by Anne Seebaldt