F E AT U R E

THE WORDS AND WORKS OF ARTIST PETER TUNNEY

BY WILLIAM MILLER PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNA PIMENTEL

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

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PHOTO CREDIT HERE

AMARA NTHINE
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WE ARE ALL STUMBLING Original painting, acrylic paint and collage of mixed media on canvas. 60" x 48

I WA NT TO P U T A TI M ER EL E A S E BOMB OF P OSITI V IT Y I N YO U R LIVING ROO M .

PETER TUNNEY

TRY TO KEEP U P WITH M E.

These are the rst words that Peter Tunney says when I meet him at his studio in Manhattans Tribeca neighborhood. The immensely successful 49-year-old artist has a shock of blond hair and a smooth, boyish face that belies his age. His white polo and cargo shorts, which would be appropriate on a golf course or at a New England country club, are splattered with fresh paint. After giving an enthusiastic, fast-paced tour of his canvas-lled studio, Tunney sits down to talk about his life and his art. Aside from his appearance, the most salient thing about Tunney is that he is a talker. In the span of two minutes and 30 words of introduction, he is already in full stride, whirling dervish-like from topic to topic, spinning connections in elds as disparate as politics, music, science, history, the future of art, his childhoodall at his
THE TRUTH ALWAYS HAPPENS Original painting, acrylic paint and collage of mixed media on canvas. 48 x 60

Socrates, and Proust. Words seem to rush out of him in little verbal avalanches of thought. Two hours into our interview, we have to stop short because Tunney has exhausted the battery of my tape recorder. It is, indeed, rather hard to keep up. For Tunneys latest project, he tells me that he has been reading the dictionary. He says that he has noticed that most people dont know the denition of the words they toss around. I nd that ninety percent of dialogue is gibberish. Its so predictable, the Democrat and Republican intractability. Theres no boundary, theres no respect. You ever hear of the word amaranthine? he suddenly asks. I shake my head. I saw this word in the dictionary the other day, and I thought it was pretty cool. The guy I was sitting with, my accountant, he says something like, Who would ever use that word? So I told him, you know what, I would. It means unfading and everlasting. And thats what I want my art to be.
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characteristically frenetic, high-octane speed. In another typical sentence, Tunney unself-consciously rattles off the names of Picasso, Man Ray, John Nash, Galileo,

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PETER TUNNEY The artist sits at his desk in Tunney Art, his studio and gallery in Tribeca, New York City.

TUNNEY MUNNEY Hand-painted oil paint and 23-karat-gold leaf on handcrafted hardwood box. 22 x 10 x 6

If you wanted to put a label on Tunneys art, you could describe it as a unique species of optimistic Pop ArtWarhol with a smile. His work is dened by meticulously hand-painted text over a dizzying array of sourcespastiches of newspaper clippings, magazine advertisements, surfboards, or the detached fender of a car. These messages (The Time Is Always Now, Enough Is Possible, etc.) are unpretentious, and though they may seem overly glib to some, they reect sentiments that, for Tunney, are both deeply personal and deeply felt. Rather than negatively critiquing American consumerism in the vein of most Pop Art, Tunneys work transcends the mire of mere pessimism and leaves the viewer with a feeling of hope and peace, just as the messages in his paintings seem to overpower the background noise of newspaper clippings and other media. He tells me, I want to put this time-release bomb of positivity in your living room, and let it affect you and your family over the next twenty-ve years, one living room at a time. As far as work is concerned, Tunneys business is booming. Earlier that day, a
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string of collectors had come in for arranged visits to his studio; Tunney accepts visitors only by appointment. I ask the artist why his paintings have been selling so quickly. He attributes it, paradoxically, to the bad economy. People are tired of being cynical. Its the old expressionthey are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Before becoming an artist, Tunney worked at an astonishing sequence of jobs. He has been an immensely successful Wall Street investor in biotechnology, a stock broker, a club manager, a car dealer, a movie producer, and a magician. Now he is a well-regarded and an accomplished artist in his own right. The man is brimming with stories: about how he lived in a 1,000-square-foot art pad in the middle of the popular Crobar club in New York City for one year of debauchery; about his adventures in Africa with world-renowned photographer Peter Beard, and how Beard was once stomped on by an elephant and lived; about the crazed antics of the late Hunter S. Thompson; about winning a golf tournament in Bhutan; and about celebrating New Years in So

Paolo with Brazilian soccer legend Pel. Ive had a pretty wild life, Tunney admits. Tunney tells me that recently he has been involved in plans for a billboard project in New York City. Its called the Gratitude Project. The idea is that youll be driving into New York City and instead of seeing a billboard trying to sell you some kind of car or vodka, itll just say Gratitude, or Remain Calm, or Today Is the Day. Everything these days is fast, fast, fast. I think that people need to slow down sometimes and appreciate life, you know? When asked about the contemporary art scene, Tunney expresses disgust for some of the newer art. I dont like this kind of contemporary art with string and cereal boxes. It goes away; its too impermanent. I like art to say something that will last a long time. Most people will never throw [one of my paintings] away. You move into a new apartment, and its like a good friend. Its one of the few things that can be a constant in your life. Its there for you. It never changes; it marks the time. Unfading and everlasting, I really like that. Its amaranthine.