Contact email: LeahHamelArt@gmail.com

Artist bio

Leah Hamel is a multidisciplinary visual artist and art educator based in Birmingham, AL. She utilizes craft based materials and techniques to create art in a contemporary context. Her work is rooted in her love for nature and an interest in how humans interact with the environment, knowingly or inadvertently. Hamel often makes use of discarded materials, such as previously used plastic or paper, transforming them through knitting, paper making, and other experimental means. Her interest in creating ecologically based art is to engage people with the natural world and inspire individuals to foster a deeper connection with nature in their own community.

Hamel earned her MFA with honors from Louisiana State University where she was a Graduate Teaching Assistant in Sculpture and the Campus Exhibition Coordinator. She received her BFA from University of Alabama at Birmingham specializing in ceramics and sculpture with a minor in art history. Hamel’s sculptural work has been exhibited in notable museums and galleries including Wiregrass Museum, Corcoran Gallery, Morgan Conservatory, and the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans. Publications of her work include North American Handmade Paper Catalog, Mockingheart Review, and Hand Papermaking: Twenty First Century Papermakers.