Vandalism in Cherry Valley

Kicked over bench in Cherry Valley park from incident on Tuesday, March 19th.

By Alexis Pencar

CHERRY VALLEY — Vandalism took place in Cherry Valley on the evening of Tuesday March 19th at Alden Field Park. The suspects were identified and the Sheriff was involved in punishment.

According to the Village of Cherry Valley, “It took place Tuesday evening about 7:48 PM. 4 youths tried kicking in the doors of the restrooms at Alden Field Park in the Village of Cherry Valley. Unsuccessful, they tipped over two granite benches that were donated by a walking club.” The door in question was damaged.

The Village posted photos of the video on social media and according to a Village official, “in 25 minutes a parent called the Village office and claimed responsibility for two of the four boys. It wasn't long before the other two were identified.”

The Sheriff's Office was called and involved. Restitution for the 4 identified will be in the “form of work days at the park”.

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Clearing a Path to a Bright Future at BOCES

SCHOHARIE -- Capital Region BOCES seniors Katelyn Burtt and Jayden Abeling take a break recently from clearing land on the Career and Technical Education Center – Schoharie Campus.

The pair are among 39 students enrolled in the Heavy Equipment Operation, Maintenance & Repair program and two of just a handful of women students who are challenging society’s gender norms while operating heavy equipment. The two-year program teaches students how to operate and maintain large construction-related equipment, such as backhoes, dozers, front-end loaders, and excavators. Students also learn how to diagnose and repair common issues with diesel engines and heavy machines.

Abeling and Burtt both plan to take their new-found skills right into the workforce.

“I want to be an equipment operator at the union at Callanan,” said Burtt.

Abeling is already considering job offers that would allow her to use the skills.

“Going to BOCES helps you to learn things and gain experience you would not otherwise learn and gives you opportunities few get when they graduate high school,” she said.

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Cherry Valley Easter Egg Hunt Set for Saturday

CHERRY VALLEY - Back for its fourth year, the Cherry Valley Easter Egg Hunt will be held the day before Easter, on Saturday, from noon - 2pm.

Pick up your map at The Telegraph School, 83 Alden Street, find all the egg signs around downtown, and come back to collect your prize. There will also be a drawing for some beautiful Easter baskets.

There will be a Girl Scout Cookie Booth as well.

The event is sponsored by The Telegraph School and The Historic Cherry Valley Businesses.

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Seward offers survey to gain federal funds

The Town of Seward needs to upgrade its municipal sewer system, due to new NYSDEC discharge limits on the wastewater treatment system. The current system needs to be upgraded to meet these new discharge limitations. To keep the rates as low as possible, they are investigating several sources of grants and low- interest loans. 

The Town of Seward is asking for all residents who use the municipal sewer system to help by filling out a confidential survey that the Supervisor and Town Board hope will give them an advantage on federal funding for a very costly sewer upgrade. 

The surveys will be mailed out with assistance from RCAP Solutions, a private non-profit that helps municipalities with technical assistance and leveraging for projects like these. A 90 percent return rate for the income survey is critical in the town's efforts to get additional funding for the project. Residents, both renters and homeowners, but not businesses will receive a letter, the survey and a postage paid return envelope mailed back to RCAP Solutions. In addition to returning by mail, surveys can be returned by scanning the QR Code on the letter and submitting it online or by visiting https://arcg.is/efOfy directly. The QR Code is reproduced here. 

The survey asks six questions, including number of occupants and the estimated household income; answers will be separated from the signature page and no names or addresses will be shared locally, RCAP will use the data captured for the grant application. 

The Town of Seward has already received approximately $187,000 in ARPA funds awarded through Schoharie County and the Town Board voted to apply all of those funds towards the upgrade. 

It is extremely important for those in the sewer district to complete these surveys and return them as quickly as possible. Time is of the essence and the application date is fast approaching. We need everyone's help to get the funding we need to complete this upgrade. 

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Local Business Focus - Grapevine Farms

By Tori Edwards 

COBLESKILL – For over 21 years Grapevine Farms has been in business at 2378 State Route 7 Cobleskill. 

The cozy farmhouse was built in the 1850s, the owners and operators of this amiable country-style boutique are Tim and Tracey Purcell. 

Their business began after the airline industry had a major shift, so they decided to open a country-style shop that would fit the community perfectly! 

The duo promotes tasteful products at affordable prices. The products they sell are soaps, fragrances, candles, jewelry, baked goods, maple items, pottery, wines and so much more! The wines they sell are made in-house as well as being sellers for NY State Wineries and Grape Growers, they do complimentary taste testing every day! They are proud members of the Schoharie County Beverage Trail! In their wine cellar, they also have a selection of different ciders from alcoholic to non-alcoholic. 

When it comes to cherished comfort food this place flourishes on their lunch menu. It is a home-cooked meal that is heartwarming and peaceful from the atmosphere the luncheonette brings. Their cookies are incredible, many of us in the community have loved them over the years. Especially their famous Chocolate Jumbos.  Some of the name brands they sell are Beekman 1802, Luca and Danni, Colonial Candles, Simply Noelle, Michel Designs, Stonewall Kitchen, Vera Bradley, and the list goes on! It is a completely unique experience from your ordinary shopping trip, that has a hands-on experience that you will not get with online ordering. There are 3 floors to explore! 

Enjoy the vibrant environment that Grapevine Farms continues to represent. They are proud sponsors of the Marathon for a Better Life and the local animal shelter. They have several promotions going on so keep a lookout for their Reels on Facebook at Grapevine Farms. As of right now, they will be having Boozy Bingo Events throughout the month of April! Check on Facebook for more details!

There is so much for you to see at this place you will love the atmosphere as soon as you walk through the doors! They host Baby showers, celebrations, weddings, and more! They can be contacted at (518)234-9148 or emailed at shop@grapevinefarms.com. The Purcells will continue to improve quality with great merchandise at a reasonable price. 

This family-friendly establishment is open year-round 10 am-6 pm. They say, “Stop for a bit or stay all day." Enjoy a country-style experience from a heartwarming farmhouse shop that will make you feel right at home. 

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Whittling Away with Dick Brooks - Wrappings

I am convinced that somewhere on our planet lives an evil genius.  He probably lurks in an underground lair deep in the bowels of an active volcano (evil geniuses seem to prefer those kinds of places), where he and his cronies do nothing all day but design wrappings for products found all over the world.  

I bought a tie out cable for Telly, our trusty canine companion, the other day.  A relatively simple device, 20 feet of cable covered with a red plastic casting with a metal clip on each end.  I put the package containing the cable on the kitchen table until Telly and I were ready to go out for our daily yard adventures.  I puttered around the kitchen until Telly reminded me that it was unwatering time and bushes to be visited outside.  I got my hat, Telly’s leash and the package with the cable in it and out we went.  We made our traditional cruise around the yard until Telly ran dry, then we went over to the picnic table where I had left the package.  It was bubble wrapped, Thick plastic on both sides with the cable trapped inside.  I tried to rip it open, no luck, it was hermetically sealed around all sides.  I tried to break through the bubble with my finger nail, the bubble didn’t break, but the finger nail did. 

I began to realize that this was some kind of Lexan or a similar bulletproof material.  I pulled out my trusty Swiss army knife and cut around the edge inside the hermetically 

sealed edge.  It still didn’t come apart because it had been stapled in two places.  I pulled the staples and lifted out the coil of cable.  I wasn’t done yet, there were three heavy duty cable ties that had to be unwound before the cable was finally ready for use, all this for a cable that would spend its life lying in the grass and dirt of the lawn.

I got to thinking about all the unnecessary packages we use and the layers of protection we have that maybe aren’t really necessary.  In the market the other day I saw a package of six oranges on a foam tray sealed in plastic wrap.  Don’t they come with their own wraps- like bananas?

Driving home in and still having a nice little ponder about the way we layer protection, I thought back to my cars' far distant ancestors.  They looked like buggies with open wheels.  Folks got tired of having mud thrown all over them and we invented fenders to protect us from flying debris.  We then painted the fenders to protect them from the elements.  We undercoated them to protect them from mud and salt.  We then clear coated the fenders to protect the paint and then we waxed them to protect the clear coat we put on to protect the paint we put on to protect the metal in the fenders we put on to protect us from flying goop.    

I wonder how many layers of protection that evil genius has because someday I’m going to find that lair and bubble wrap him.  Life will be simpler and the world will be a better place.

Thought for the week—“It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.”  --Jerry Seinfeld

Until next week, may you and yours be happy and well.

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A Conversation About: Climate change

By Jean Thomas

This past month has been one for the record books. Of course, that’s not saying much. After all, every month is one for the record books or there wouldn’t be any record books. But I digress. We all know what I mean. This past month has been outstandingly unique, even around here. We’ve had record warm days. I raked a big section of my yard in my shirtsleeves a week before the snow, then rain, then snow drifted down… in one day. This assorted precipitation exceeded the total for the entire winter so far, at least at my house.  I had items pushed around in my gardens that I had thought were impervious to wind. Well, it seems there’s a new bad guy in our meteorological “town”. Until the last decade or so I can’t recall wind warnings being part of a weather report. Now we just factor them into our outdoor plans. I only had my driveway plowed four times this year, so I saved money. But parts of my lawn have become swampy and hold standing water for a long time. So I will have to revise my mowing patterns and take longer to do that chore.

So what’s going on? We just shrug and say, “Oh, that Climate Change!”  Mostly we just go about our day and expect “someone” to fix it.  The scientists seem to have it figured out. Geologists consider the last fifty million years the recent past, so forty to fifty million years ago, when the temperature of the planet was scorching, seems recent to them, but not us.  What’s the problem, then, if it takes millions of years to change the climate? The problem is that we have entered an unofficial geological phase called the Anthropocene . This began around either the mid 18oo’s or maybe 1950 (it’s still a new idea) and is directly attributed to the influence of humanity. Here is where it gets scary. This is the beginning of the “Great Acceleration” of human influence and alteration of the climate of the entire planet. As I understand it, industrialization has altered the pace of production of greenhouse gases. These are the vapors and chemicals that prevent heat from leaving the surface of the planet. What in the past took millions of years now takes hundreds. The result is what we are starting to see, mainly an alteration in all the conditions we have come to rely on. If the seasons change their timing too quickly, and the precipitation patterns change too abruptly, the plants and animals that rely on a natural “schedule” for their reproduction and survival will face extinction.  That can include us, since whether we like it or not, we’re part of the cycle. I checked, and state and federal governments are addressing climate change on a lot of fronts. It’s a start. But it’s kind of scary, so I’m definitely going to learn more about what I can do as an individual. I kind of like it here and would like my grandchildren to enjoy it the same way I do.

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Outdoors with Larry DiDonato - Bill to Fund Conservation Enforcement Advances in Senate

On March 26th the NYS Senate Environmental Conservation Committee in Albany, advanced a bill that will create a special law enforcement account within DEC. The bill, A08213/S07086, known as the Kelles Fines Bill, is sponsored by Assemblymember Dr. Anna R. Kelles, (D) of Ithaca, and Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chairman, Pete Harckham, (D) of Putman County. It is now being reported to finance in the senate committee. A necessary step on its path to the floor of the legislature for a vote. The measure will divert increased fines from poaching and pollution cases from the state’s General Fund, to a special, newly created Conservation Enforcement Account within DEC.  The movement in the Senate Encon committee received bipartisan support and was unanimously approved. 

ECO Matt Krug, Director of the Environmental Conservation Police Officers and Investigators Association at the PBA of NYS, reports $46 million dollars in fines and civil penalties was generated by Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigators upon the settlement of environmental violations. If this bill becomes law, the money that went into state coffers in the General Fund, would instead be diverted into a new Conservation Enforcement Account at DEC to be spent at the discretion of the its commissioner. There will be an exemption for fines and penalties dedicated to be deposited into the Conservation Fund as well as those earmarked for the Hazardous Waste Remediation Fund.   

Funds generated from the proposed law is to be used exclusively for enforcement of the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL). It would include funding for scientists, environmental police officers, attorneys, support staff, “…and such other expenses the commissioner deems necessary for such enforcement.” The money is specifically to be used to supplement, not supplant existing and future funding of ECL enforcement efforts. 

Union Director, Matt Krug would like to see funds from the prospective new enforcement account used to purchase equipment, especially boats and motors which are in dire need of replacement due to the aging of the Division’s fleet. That fleet was once referred to as the state’s Navy due to its robust presence on waters from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes and every waterbody in-between. 

In addition to traditional enforcement of fishing and other regulations, ECOs continue to be responsible for protection of the Homeland using vessels equipped to detect potentially weaponized radiation as they perform their normal fish and wildlife patrols.

ECO Krug not only laments the lack of planned replacement of vessels needed for enforcement, he points to the current need for ECO staffing. Citing exponential expansion of duties of ECOs today compared to officers on staff 50 years ago, ECO Krug states Division staffing levels are the same as back then, despite the expansive growth in their mission. The DEC Police Union Director went on to highlight the problem of prosecuting environmental and wildlife crimes given today’s changing criminal justice environment. 

NY’s bail and discovery laws place new burdens upon county District Attorney’s offices, who the ECOs rely upon to prosecute most of their cases. This is especially true when cases involve extensive motion practice and when they reach the trial stage. Some counties are letting important poaching and environmental crimes fall through the cracks resulting in their dismissal. Poachers and polluters are getting away with crimes threatening our fish, wildlife, and the environment. This is a disservice to the citizens of the state who push for laws to protect the environment and combat poaching, only to have prosecutions languish due to lack of expertise, and staffing that must be dedicated to the prosecution of serious violent crimes. 

A carve out to assist county district attorneys and other creative means to support environmental crime prosecutions would be an excellent outcome should the funding bill become law. After all, what’s the use of passing laws to combat poaching and pollution if they will not be enforced and prosecuted? 

Happy hunting, fishing and trapping until next time! 

News and Notes

Still time to take the Hunter Safety Class on March 30th at Norton Hill Wildlife Club

Greene County Hunter Safety Coordinator, Bill Burger, will be presenting a firearms hunter

safety class on Saturday, March 30th from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm at the Norton Hill Wildlife Club at 946 Big Woods Road in Greenville, NY. Just in time for the upcoming youth turkey season. You must register for the class at DEC’s website, www.dec.ny.gov and complete required homework to attend the free in-person class. Once on the website home page, scroll down to “Quick Links,” then select “Take  a Hunter Education Course.” For more information, call Bill Burger at 518-622-3795.

Youth Turkey Hunting Weekend is April 20th and 21st 

The 2024 youth turkey hunting season begins on Saturday, April 20th and ends Sunday, April 21st. The Norton Hill Wildlife Club is holding a “Youth Turkey Hunting Orientation Day” at their club on Saturday, April 13th beginning at 10:00 am. All youth hunters and their parents/guardian/mentors are welcome. The event will include a chance to “talk turkey” with local Conservation Officers and other turkey hunting experts, and includes an opportunity for  youth hunters and their mentors to pattern shotguns at the club’s range. Youths will receive instruction on turkey tactics to increase their chances to bag a gobbler safely. (Youth hunters must be accompanied by an adult at the orientation on April 13th)

Norton Hill is also holding an “After the Hunt BBQ” for all youth hunters, parents, mentors etc. at the conclusion of the first day’s hunt on Saturday April 20th starting at 12:00 pm.

Save-the-date for New York Bowhunters Banquet in Greeneville – May 18th 

New York Bowhunters will hold their 33rd Annual Banquet and Rendezvous on Saturday, May 18th 2023 at the Sunny Hill Resort and golf course at 352 Sunny Hill Road in Greenville, NY. For early birds arriving the day before, there will be a BBQ on Friday night at 6:00 pm with a 50/50 raffle. Discounted rooms that include breakfast at Sunny Hill are available. Go to www.sunnyhill.com or call them at 518-634-7642 to make your discounted room reservation. Registration for the day’s activities start at 9:00 am with their General Meeting scheduled for 1:00 pm, cocktail hour at 5:00 pm, and dinner and silent auction at 6:00 pm. The keynote speaker this year is Colorado big game hunter and guide, John Gardner. The event includes 3D archery and novelty shoots, antler scoring, contests, prizes, and free golf for NY Bowhunter members. Genesis bows will be provided for participants. There will be vendor tables, raffles and plenty of fun things to do. Tickets are $55.00 for individuals with kids under 12 are free. To purchase tickets and for more information, contact Annie Jacobs via email at nyboffice@newyorkbowhunters.com , or by regular mail: 5937 County Road 33 Canandaigua, NY 14424. You can also give Annie a call at 585-229-7468 for more information.  Local NY Bowhunters representative Ed Gorch reminds all attending to bring a gift box for their “Camo to Camo” program supporting our veterans.

Remember to report poaching violations by calling 1-844-DEC-ECOS.

  

  

 

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THE CATSKILL GEOLOGISTS BY PROFESSORS ROBERT AND JOHANNA TITUS - It’s the landslide Season Once Again. Part One

Ryan Penny is best known for running Camp Catskill, a hiking and camping gear shop in Tannersville. He is also a member of an extensive network of geology spies that we maintain throughout the Catskills. We have to get columns out every week and we need help to do that. Our team of spies is always on the lookout for things we can write about. Recently Ryan contacted us about an interesting phenomenon he had discovered while hiking above Rte. 214, at the west end of Plateau Mountain. It was an enormous boulder that had apparently tumbled to near the bottom of that slope. Look at our first photo and you will see this very big rock. Sandstone, like this weighs about 150 lbs. per cubic foot and we guesstimate that this one is about six feet by six feet by ten feet or 360 cubic feet. Multiply by 150 and that is a 54,000 lbs. boulder! Those numbers catch your attention, don’t they? Ryan thought there might be a story here. He thought that this had been a recent rockfall, perhaps a very recent one.

                      

Ryan met one of us, Robert, and led the way to the boulder. It was immediately obvious that he was right about that slide. There were a number of freshly broken trees with some of them lying underneath the boulder. But there was a lot more to the story. Ryan pointed uphill and there were a few more boulders. These too, had recently slid. But it all got worse, much worse as we gazed farther uphill. We suddenly saw the source of all these landslides. See our second photo.

                                      

We looked and saw a steep corridor of broken trees leading all the way to the top of the ridge. Up there was a very sizable ledge of Catskill bluestone. That appeared to be the source of these boulders. The story was getting more and more interesting. Now we understood that this was not just a simple onetime slide but that this was an ongoing process. This was in the middle of March and, along with April, that is a time that might be called the landslide season. You see, that’s when the nighttime temperatures commonly drop below freezing. During the following days, temperatures are likely to climb back above freezing. That means that water can freeze at night and melt during the day. We geologists call these freeze-thaw cycles.

We looked back up to that ledge again and realized that up there water was soaking into rock fractures nearly every day. During the nights it was frequently freezing. Water expands as it turns into ice and so those cracks were commonly expanding. When fractures expand just a little too much then the rock loosens up and every once in a whole a 54,000 lb. boulder will come bouncing and pounding down the hill slope. Along the way it will knock down all sorts of trees before finally coming to a rest. We were looking at a hill that apparently had been seeing this process underway for days or even weeks.

We have not given precise directions on getting to this site. Normally we want you to go out and see the geology that we describe. But this time is different; we think that there are real hazards here. New rockfalls can occur at any moment, including when you are there. Please don’t go. There are other hazards.  We will cover those next week.

Contact the authors at randjtitus@prodigy.net. Join their facebook page “The Catskill Geologist.” Read their blogs at “thecatskillgeologist.com.”

             

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MUSINGS OF A LOCAL - A Sad Chapter… Letchworth Village

Photo credit: Hudson Valley Magazine

Photo credit: www.LetchworthVillage.info

By Iris Mead

THIELLS, ROCKLAND COUNTY — “WE FAILED THEM” is a quote from a woman who had worked at Letchworth Village during the years when it was considered an ideal center for the mentally challenged.  Later, it became a horror story and the failures became headlines. This story is not about Letchworth and the horrors that happened there after overcrowding and neglect were exposed at Willowbrook, another State-run facility for the feeble-minded, by Geraldo Rivera in 1972.  That expose’ also shed light on Letchwood Village and the overcrowding, abuse, and mistreatment of the patients came to light.  I am not going into the history of Letchworth Village in this article, that can be found online, but will talk about some of the “patients” that were moved out of the facility in the 1950’s and into “private homes” when the State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities began their closure of the Village.

“Patients”- they were called that when relocated to private homes of families away from the facility. They were the lucky ones.   I personally know of six families that “took in” patients and received payments from the State to house them.  Most families had 4-5 patients depending on the size of their home.  Some took in men and some women, never both sexes in the same home.  Usually, the patients were housed in a separate part of the house and fed three meals a day in their own dining room.  They usually shared a bedroom with another patient and had regular duties depending on their mental abilities.  The women patients were given light chores. 

As a child growing up, my aunt had men patients who mostly sat around; sometimes one of them would have to be sent back to Letchworth because he was unmanageable or just didn’t fit in.  Some of them had light duties of raking the lawn, cleaning up the table after meals and keeping their bedrooms clean.  A friend’s grandmother had one patient named Hattie for 22 years!  She remembers that the patients had to go back to Letchworth once a year for physical checkups and sometimes did not return or returned mentally more confused than when they left because just being in that place brought back horrific memories.  If they were acting out just the warning that “I will send you back” would quiet them down.

The patients usually arrived with little more than just the clothes on their backs, toiletries and a few State-issued clothes.  Occasionally family members would send care packages to relatives but visits seldom happened.  These patients were left by family members because they were mentally deficient, emotionally unstable, poorly developed or unable to fit in with the family.  Today there are treatments for these conditions.  Once dropped off at Willowbrook or Letchworth these patients were forgotten and lived lonely lives.  These group homes did offer a bit of comfort and companionship to those lucky enough to be eligible to be in one.

As a kid who lived almost next door to one of these homes, I grew up playing with the women who lived there.  One particular patient, named Marilyn, had had polio as a child and limped but was mentally there.  She was able to play most card games with us and carry on conversations.  Another patient, Jane, had severe developmental disabilities but she loved to have us around to listen to and brighten up her day.  I remember playing ball in the back yard although there were very few hit balls and croquet was very popular.

One very interesting fact about Letchworth Village that bears noting is that it was a research facility in the beginning and helped in the fight against polio. One of the first polio vaccines was given to 20 children at Letchworth, after a Dr. George Jervis tried it on himself, and 17 developed antibodies to the polio virus and none had complications.  Of course, this would not be allowed today.

Letchworth Village was shut down inn 1996 and the patients in the family homes as well as the  patients in the facility were sent to group homes, the unlucky ones, or ended up on the streets.  There are many buildings of the campus that have been restored and used today and many that are in ruins. It is possible to walk the grounds of this place that many say is haunted by the unfortunate inhabitants.

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The Peter Mayer Experience

Exhibition at Diamond Hollow Books

By Robert Brune

ANDES — Once upon a time, Manhattan was a mix of neighborhoods, as Peter Mayer explains his experience of growing up in NYC. He describes it as being “Families of different ethnic backgrounds living in specific neighborhoods - considered good or bad. Rich and poor - those in the middle. I guess I was in the lower middle, but I discovered that the island upon which I lived was full of great things - outside my immediate neighborhood.”  As a child, Mayer set out to explore the marvels of the city thus discovering the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MOMA).  This was to be a significant discovery that would help shape his life as he explains, “Back then, it was pretty empty on weekdays, not too crowded on weekends and admission was always free. So, I got to spend time with great artworks, as if they were mine, but they were stored there in a safe space. I would always leave the Met feeling empowered.  It is said, “All you have to do is stand before great art and it will reveal itself to you.” I did and it did.” Great works of art affect everyone differently. 

Mayer went on to explain how he doesn’t understand how people can zip through a crowded museum and not take the time to fully appreciate the craftsmanship and emotion that artists choose to share with the world. Mayer, living mostly on the upper east side of Manhattan, had been working on his skills as an artist by the time he was in his young teens. A friend of his approached him, as he reflected back, “When I was 13, a family friend said, ‘You are an artist’ and took me to an art opening. So we went, it was in Little Italy near Soho. It was a storefront that was rented by a group of artists who used it for art shows and as a place to hang out. The artists and partners put out food and drink, and I saw abstract and strange conceptual works, things I would see in galleries years later. They teased me, “Oh you’re an artist!” and laughed at me, “You’ve chosen the path of craziness.” That I already knew, we all laughed and drank together. I knew I’d made the right choice. Amongst those I met was Robert DeNiro’s father, an abstract painter”.

By the time Mayer started attending school for art, he had grown disinterested in the daily routine of many people chattering on about tv shows and neighborhood gossip. While working on his artwork on a rooftop, as he tells it, “I had an idea and started painting nude women sunbathing. I knew it could catch on with the news helicopters, but it did require vandalizing 7-8 buildings. I knew I had to do it. I would not tell anyone; I got up early and discretely made my marks, made them all blond because it only required one color paint and would read well on television. My goal was to paint 100 and call it 100 blondes. Two weeks passed, I would go up to paint whenever the weather permitted and ended up with 88. I was at the Art Students League on a Friday night, drawing from the figure and wondering what happened with the blondes. The next morning, I met a neighbor on the sidewalk - he was grinning - they had been on TV. “What was I doing sneaking around on the roof?” “How was it?” I asked; he said it was on the 6 o’clock news for NBC with Lloyd Kramer.”

This led to Mayer painting graffiti style dogs. Now off the rooftops and into the streets, people began to notice his work, “A few days later, I saw spray paint near the heliport - a Samo (Basquiat) style tag saying -Bring the doggies downtown.“ Mayer had been tagging in the same neighborhood as Basquiat, it seemed to be a territorial signal which Mayer respected and took full advantage of the suggestion. Mayer began doing his dog paintings on buildings in some of the better neighborhoods of Chelsea and Soho. With the continued exposure on Page Six of the Daily News, Mayer says Andy Warhol had taken notice of his work. The delightful guidance of Basquiat helped Mayer do gallery showings on Madison Ave and throughout Soho, “At around this time I met Keith Haring, (by that time quite sick) who told me, ‘There are too many temptations in the art world’ and I saw that was true, things coming my way through the dogs and the art scene… Now that Haring, Basquiat and Richard Hambleton are dead, I see in retrospect, the danger of the temptations in NYC and the art world in particular.” explains Mayer.  

With the increased popularity of Mayer and his work, he began to feel tension with his friends and family. This experience prompted him to escape to upstate New York and land in Andes, as he tells it, “Fast forward to the past few years, I have re-engaged with the dogs, now to be found on buildings in the central Catskills. Life in the mountains, along with working with the Andes Academy of Art and Diamond Hollow, has led me to rethink my relationship with art, and I have concluded that, as important as NYC is, one can continue to grow and create as an artist well beyond the borders of the city.”

‘Peter Mayer is a faberge egg, when cracked it’s filled with LSD’ ~ Steve Burnett (Bovina Farmer)

Peter Mayer is currently showing an exhibition of his abstract artwork, mostly multi-media collage pieces, at the Diamond Hollow Bookstore. His 2024 show, Silent Music, refers to the visual ‘lyricality’ of Mayer’s work, as well as the influence of rock music that infuses his work. The pieces installed for the show are both an outgrowth and an inversion of his 2023 exhibit Ontological Union in which he transformed a former plumbing shop into an immersive environment that artist Sharon Horvath described as “a glittering man-girl-cave” in which “nostalgia, reverence, revelry, and contempt bounce around reflective walls” in a “grand collage of collages.” Mayer’s goal of “transporting viewers into a different time and space” was realized for many of the visitors in an experience that was both psychedelic and spiritual. Mayer also hosts a show on WIOX radio on Monday nights from 10 pm – Midnight. For more information see, on Instagram @graffitidogofsoho and @diamondhollowbooks 

The Mountain Eagle would like to express our deepest condolences to Peter Mayer for the recent passing of his wife Bobbi Jarrow.

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