Tommy (T-Bone) Muniz

Tommy (T-Bone) Muniz is an artist and public high school art teacher living in Putnam County, NY. He holds a BA from The School of Visual Arts and an MA from the College of New Rochelle. Soon after graduation, he became a public school art teacher, and eventually a Professional Developer for the school district’s art faculty. His natural leadership and love for education, together with his activist heart, then prompted him to run for and consequently serve as an elected union officer representing teachers throughout his career on both the local and state level. Additionally, Muniz’s creative drive led him to pursue a tattooing apprenticeship. He worked as a tattoo artist for fifteen years, an endeavor that continues to influence his visual sensibility. As an educator, Muniz has spent thirty-plus years fostering the creativity and celebrating the voices of thousands of Yonkers students. “One gift that teaching offers is the witnessing of  transformations of adolescent children into young, responsible adults. With a new awareness of themselves and the world around them, it is a moment both of great tragedy and liberation -truly beautiful to witness.” Always challenging the viewer, and himself, to delve deeper,  Muniz’s early drawing, painting and mixed media works addressed social and political issues such as the AIDS crisis, gender, masculinity, psychological disorders, and war. An educator at heart, Muniz’s work grabs you on an emotional level and engages your intellect as he challenges pre-conceived understandings of a subject. “For me, as a good teacher encourages intellectual growth; a successful work of art can be a similar catalyst for personal development.” T-Bone Muniz’s recent work is a response to our contemporary human experience. His interest in neurology, belief systems, psychology and the impact technology has on our minds fuels his imagery, metaphors and titles. With sardonic humor he paints beautifully rendered “Braintestines” that seem to be under attack and which violently excrete a flowing mass of e-waste embedded in black silicone.