I am an artist based in Carrboro, North Carolina, whose paintings give primacy to one of our most fantastic tools - the hand. 

For most of us, our hands are our first tools. For nourishing ourselves, fending for ourselves, strengthening ourselves, providing for ourselves, and for communicating our needs and wants. Hands summon intense pleasure and extraordinary pain.

Through an intuitive process of play and imagination, my art captures moments of decisiveness and discernment, as well as magic and intuition. My paintings celebrate and transcend the everyday actions of wielding, gesturing, penetrating, creating, and manifesting. 

My art is often an investigative journey into healing oneself and utilizing creativity as a spiritual practice. Themes of queer identity, sacred ceremony, feminism, environmentalism, and anti-racism can be spotted throughout my expressive and playful work.

Defying gender, these hands contemplate our most primal facilities and imagine potential futures in which all bodies have access to the tools necessary for healing, empowerment, inspiration, and protection.

I have studied various visual and musical arts and earned a BA in American Studies with a concentration in Arts in America and a minor in Film Studies from Smith College. I also earned an MPH from UNC-Chapel Hill. I have shown my paintings in Carrboro, North Carolina and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Solo Exhibitions:

TOOLS, Ceremony Salon, Carrboro, NC, July 2022

Group Exhibitions:

PEEL @ REBUS, Rebus Works Gallery, Raleigh, NC, June 2024

Full Spectrum, 311 Gallery, Raleigh, NC, June 2024

BASEMENT X PEEL fundraiser exhibition, Peel Gallery, Carrboro, NC September 2022

Email tonihartley@gmail.com with inquiries.