North Shore Artist Spotlight: Ted Hamel

“My favorite thing about being an artist is it makes me feel happy. Art makes me happy, I feel less overwhelmed when I am making. After I finish a piece I am tired, exhausted and proud. I put a lot of work into my pieces.” Ted Hamel is one of the artists that joined the North Shore studio community this summer. He has quickly become a wonderful addition to the studio and has surprised us with his wit, dance moves, and how quickly he volunteered to pie Hilary Marshall in the face for a fundraiser.  “I love creating pictures of trains, cartoons, and Harry Potter. I like them because they are fascinating. They make me feel happy. I usually use pastels, watercolor and paint brushes. I use sketching paper. I sketch on canvas and then I paint on it. I usually find my images on the Internet. I Google them.” [[{“fid”:”9918″,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fields”:{“format”:”media_original”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:””,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:””},”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“height”:2445,”width”:2788,”class”:”media-element file-media-original”}}]]Ted’s art is a mixture of color fields and doodles. The doodle-like drawings usually reference some popular culture icon like Harry Potter, railroad trains, or Looney Tunes and more-often-than-not feature speech bubbles housing an original joke of Ted’s. His drawings are then surrounded by cloudy, pastel color fields. A border is left around the drawing that creates curiosity in the viewer about how Ted uses negative space.  “When I am not at The Arts of Life I love to play soccer. I am the goalie. Before The Arts of Life I was at Clearbrook. I have always made art, I can’t remember when I first started. I was young. I plan to continue making and selling my art for a long time.”  When asked what he would like people to know about him, Ted replied he would like everyone to know that he is a kind and helpful guy. We, at the studio, can attest to that and are looking forward to Ted’s continued contribution to our community.