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This public painting was born out of a desire to know the story of this place that was my home for nearly a decade, and a desire to live my life in a way that honored the people that came before me here and the people who will come after.I invested a lot of time learning the history of the Red Hook area. I found that the piece of that history – the human part anyway – that people knew the least about was by far the most long-lasting and the single most dramatic: the roughly 12,000 years that native people lived here and the fairly recent large-scale death and removal of those native people and their way of life.
The 400-year commemoration of Henry Hudson’s arrival offered the perfect opportunity to help raise awareness about those people and what became of them, and this painting became the main focus of my efforts. Knowing this history is a critical step in honoring those people, in better understanding ourselves and our society today, and in living in right relationship with their descendants.
I offer this painting in that spirit of hope and confidence in our ability to ever-improve ourselves and offer a slightly better version of what we’ve inherited to our own children. I dedicate this painting to the Mohican and Wappinger Indians of then and now, to the Red Hook and Rhinebeck communities, and to my grandfather whose own art and commitment to service have been an inspiration in my life.
- Jeff Golden
November, 2009
Many Thanks To...
First and foremost, I offer tremendous gratitude to the artists, Matt Maley and LF Tantillo.
Matt Maley painted the entire painting, including the extensive hand lettering of the text. His tremendous talent allowed him to recreate the portions of the painting that were based on other people’s work, and to beautifully render the parts that were new, notably the Half Moon and the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Sign.
LF Tantillo’s thorough research and artistic talent have given new life to historical people and places in his many paintings. He allowed us to recreate portions of his paintings, Pap-scan-ee and Hanover Square.
Steve Comer, Shirley Dunn, Lion Miles, Molly Miller, Ruth Gudinas, and Todd Baright shared their historical knowledge and editing skills in providing feedback on the text of the painting.
Todd Baright was unflagging in his support of this project and allowing us to share it with the community on his property in Hardscrabble Plaza.
Rick Price provided critical advice about painting and protecting murals.
Dale and Marilyn at Antique and Vintage Woods of America donated all of the gorgeous wood used in the structure that supports and protects the painting.
Doug Hoffman managed the construction of the supporting structure.
The New York State Quadricentennial joined as a co-sponsor of the project and contributed funds to help cover our costs.
The following people all contributed financially: Amy Myslick, BJ Peterson, Dan Goldman, Debby Hyde, Doug and Terry Schaff, Gila Paolella, Grace Nowakoski, Jeff Golden, Jessica Barry, Joan Flint, Joanne Fox-Przeworski, Judy Hineman, Kate Parnes, Kathy O'Connor, Kavitha Rao, Keisha Lewis, Linda VanderSchuur, Margie Licchiello, Owen O'Connor, Sue Hyde, Tammi Price, Tom Kaplan, Virginia Schein
And there were many others along the way who didn’t play such front-line roles, but whose advice and support helped us along the way at critical junctures.
