We love when painters take their craft and put a humorous spin on what otherwise seems like a traditional art. These paintings by Toni Hamel are a great example, using an historical look and feel, but spinning them to be satirical and oddly funny. The 40’s style paintings showcase humans interacting with animals and other subjects, either in the absurd or quasi-absurd. We see workers carefully placing stripes on a white horse to become a zebra. In another, we see a boy at the end of a dock, seemingly taking his iceberg for a swim on a leash. In yet another, we see a dustbowl farmer with a supremely out of place My Little Pony. It’s these absurd moments that give such character to the art. The paintings are part of the series High Tides and Misdemeanors. Part of a showcase at Talon Gallery in Portland, Oregon.
