Thony Aiuppy (M.F.A., painting, 2013) is a practicing visual artist, arts educator and contributing writer for Metro Jacksonville in Florida. His work deals primarily with portraiture and figure drawing, and his paintings use thickly handled paint and rich colors to address the physical and metaphysical aspects of the human experience. Exploring the effects of time, culture and ideology in fictional scenes, Aiuppy's work synthesizes socioeconomic and political themes with his personal experience living in the racially divided American South. He has exhibited at North Gallery, Cork Arts District, Jacksonville; Kent Campus Gallery, Florida State College at Jacksonville; and the Poe Museum, Richmond, Virginia, among others. Aiuppy lives in the historic Springfield neighborhood of Jacksonville with his wife and three children.