Maurie David Mehr was born 12/6/1948 in Kowloon, China. He spent the first four years of his life there. When his father was transferred back to New York City, the family lived in Manhattan. At the age of 5 and after a bad divorce, he and his mother moved to an apartment near the Bronx Zoo. He loved and missed and longed for his father and although his father lived nearby, he saw him only occasionally.
Even though Maurice was a westerner and Jewish by birth, his mind and heart were tied to the east. He created out of that mindset, from the very deepest part of him, he sang onto the canvas, he danced while playing his instruments, he meditated into his writing. His whole life was a prayer, a meditation, on the transcendent nature of art. Of that moment when the divine and the human touch, and creativity is born.
He became intuitively aware early in his life that he would never be famous, but, what to do with this urge to create? Did it matter that he had no audience, other than a few compatriots that rarely became close to him? Not to him, because that urge, that desire to create, create, and create more was irrestible, and so he created, for that divinity that created him.
.
Maurice was a very poor student, saying he felt that what was taught in school "didn't concern him". He taught himself to read at the age of 10 by reading comic books, soon speading school days in the public library. By the age of 13 he was reading Saul Bellow, Henry Miller, Durrell, Felinghetti, Ginsburg, Buddha, TS Eliot, Homer, Voltaire, Lao Tzu and so many other great writers and great beings.
Maurice attended Franconia College in New Hamphire, which no longer exists, but at the time was an alternative college for creative people. Graduating with a writing degree, and being loathe to return to the oppressive nature of New York City, he moved to Boston where he worked as a substitute teacher and began to write and paint and compose in earnest. During this time he formed "Maurice Mehrs' Very Very Serious Orchestra" . This musically avant garde group performed throughout Boston and Cambridge and on the local PBS radio station.
Maurice attended Franconia College in New Hamphire, which no longer exists, but at the time was an alternative college for creative people. Graduating with a writing degree, and being loathe to return to the oppressive nature of New York City, he moved to Boston where he worked as a substitute teacher and began to write and paint and compose in earnest. During this time he formed "Maurice Mehrs' Very Very Serious Orchestra" . This musically avant garde group performed throughout Boston and Cambridge and on the local PBS radio station.
After his first serious relationship ended, he knew he had to find a situation where he could continue to create. His father had died and left him a small pension, and with some money he came into after the sale of the house that he and his girlfriend shared, he bought a house in Jamaica Plain, and rented out rooms to the many college students that populate Boston. He lived in the tiny two room attic, creating in one room and living in the other. Through divine grace he had found a way to continue to create and support himself.
After his first serious relationship ended, he knew he had to find a situation where he could continue to create. His father had died and left him a small pension, and with some money he came into after the sale of the house that he and his girlfriend shared, he bought a house in Jamaica Plain, and rented out rooms to the many college students that populate Boston. He lived in the tiny two room attic, creating in one room and living in the other. Through divine grace he had found a way to continue to create and support himself.
Maurice and I met in July of 1980, and in August, I moved in with him. Both of us continued to paint and create in the attic. He had become a meditator several years earlier, and his interest in eastern philosophies began to bloom. His intuitive insights were abundant, not just about art, but about life, psychology, and spirituality. His insights into life itself, philosophy, and the very nature of reality were a constant source of inspiration to me, and were always evident in his work.
As the neighborhood in Jamaica Plain became gentrified in the mid 80's, Maurice and I made the decision to move to Florida, where we wouldn't have to worry about heating bills. I began selling my jewelry creations at art shows, which allowed Maurice to continue to create, and allowed us to be together during the week.
Often after coming home from an art show, and seeing what he had created while I was gone, I would be moved to tears, from the beauty and joy that he had created. That, I told him, was where I imagined enlightenment to be, and where I wanted to exist - inside one of his paintings. Maurice was touched by the divine, that wild abstract love just sang through his work. He had an inner courage to delve into the deepest part of him that was unsurpassed.
After Maurice passed in 2007, my only concern was for his work. Always kept in a climate controlled setting, I can not bear the thought of his work ending up on the side of the road for the trash, when I too, leave this world.
Because of a serendiptious meeting a few years ago, an understanding grew in me that I am to give away Maurice's work, and that by doing so, his work will find a receptive home in the hearts and minds of those who dance to the same music.
If you have gotten this far, it's a miracle, but if you have, and find yourself drawn to Maurices' work, please email me, and I will be glad to send you one or more of his paintings. Please specify if you prefer color or black and white, and faces or no faces.
If I am financially doing ok at the time I get your request, I will be glad to send them out at no cost, including shipping. However if you could pay for shipping, I would certainly appreciate it.
There are no other links to his work besides this website, which is not set up for mobile viewing. No Twitter, Facebook, Google +, Pinterest, or any other social media links.
To contact me, please use : laurandmrmo@gmail.com or designsbylauramehr@hotmail.com, or call me at 772 486 4744, and my paypal address is : designsbylauramehr@hotmail.com