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Father and son gain recognition as talented local artists, sculptors

By Dollie Gull

CAIRO — Cairo Town Board member Trevor Tunison, son of famed artist/sculptor Ron Tunison and wife, Alice, is making a name for himself.

Following in his famous father’s footsteps, Trevor is gaining recognition as an artist in his own right.

A June 2007 graduate of Columbia-Greene Community College, Trevor is finishing his junior year at SUNY Oneonta where he is majoring in music. But he is also a sculptor, like his father.

Apprenticing with his father, who created major works of art including a recent historic “bigger than life” sculpture for the state of Delaware, Trevor has learned his craft well and recently won acclaim at the Greene County Council on the Arts’ Catskill Gallery at 398 Main Street in downtown Catskill. His heroic-sized, clay-fired self-portrait sculpture featured in the window of GCCA’s gallery was among 100 exciting student works of art created in all different medium in a range of traditional to contemporary, chosen from among all the SUNY schools throughout New York state.

“This distinct honor was awarded to Trevor by Chancellor John R. Ryan of the SUNY schools and was exhibited at the New York State Museum in Albany during the summer months of 2007 as part of the ‘Best of SUNY Art Exhibition,’” explained Alice.

She said Trevor created his self-portrait while looking in a mirror, and by using photographs of himself. He showed such talent early on that his father accepted him as an apprentice. While artists customarily work with assistants, it is a little unusual that this is a father-son partnership.

“Trevor,” Alice said, “magnificently hand-painted in oils his second original, fired clay sculpture of a weapon-wielding combatant making ready a final blow.

“This piece was built up around a wire armature made by Trevor. He used as reference comic book character drawings and muscle magazines to guarantee body proportion and physique,” she said. “This sculpture won the bronze medal at the Valley Forge, Pa. Miniature Figure Collector’s Show of America and won Best of Show at the Twilight Art Exhibition in Haines Falls in 2006.”

Alice said Trevor has been sculpting since he was a youngster with a talent that showed early on.

“He continues to develop his sculpting prowess through apprenticing with his father on his dad’s most recent monument commission,” she stated.

Trevor has branched out into a new artistic field of endeavor and has built a stone tiering around garden fountains and a custom made stone walk as part of his interest in landscape architecture, according to Alice.

“He has an excellent eye for balancing stonework using local pieces,” said his mother who, herself, is an artist in her own right.

Trevor’s larger-than-life self-portrait sculpture is now on display at the Bank of America’s Cairo Branch.

Ron Tunison is about to have a heroic-sized, eight-foot tall, three-figure sculpture unveiled at the state capital in Dover, Del., representing Delaware’s three counties and their participation in the American Revolutionary War. The sculpture is expected to be unveiled in a special ceremony next month.

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