Toni Hamel

Michael Thomas is pleased to present paintings and drawings by Toni Hamel.  Toni was born and raised in Italy and received her BFA there from the Academy of Fine Arts in Lecce.  She describes her work as "an illustrated commentary on human frailties".  Utilizing symbolism, irony and satire, she chooses visual elements on the basis of their ability to function as a support structure for the particular message she needs to convey.  She invites the viewer to dig deeper than the surface of things to ultimately get to the embedded truth.  This approach also allows for the viewer to infer personal alternative meanings, thus expanding the scope of her original intention even further.