Thomas Mayor

Thom Mayor, 67, passed away on 1/4/08 at the Taos Living Center, after a long ordeal with cancer of the thymus. Thom is survived by his Mother, Eva Laurina of Dunedin, Florida, sister Judi Mayor Hunt of Craig, Colorado, his children Kendra Suzanne Olivis and Jason Thomas Mayor of Salisbury, Maryland, and Luke Kantor of Tucson, Arizona, grandchildren Trevor Hobson, Zechariah Hobson, Georgia Olivis and Julian Olivis , nephews Daniel Coffey, Ryan Coffey and John Bates, grand-nephews Daniel and Torre Coffey, and grand-niece Alexandria Bates. Thom was born in New York City on 2/22/41, graduated from Long Island City High School New York, then went on to obtain a Bachelor's degree in philosophy from Thiel College in Youngstown, Ohio. He interrupted study toward a Master's degree in order to pursue varied experiences, including selling carpet on the road, out of the back of a van. Thom found himself in Taos in 1974, because he had taken up a keen interest in painting in oil and knew of Taos as a center for painting and painters. Over the years, he was constantly at his easel, developing a unique abstract style all his own. He supported himself with odd jobs and the occasional sale of a painting. In a statement written for a retrospective of his work at the Bill Rane Gallery in March of 2008 he said, "I don't quite remember where it was I first saw or heard the words- "action painting", describing a process, naming a form or style, but, immediately I was brought to a state of alertness- of self-recognition. Over the years of painting more and more I rely on intuitive leaps of recognition born in the process of applying paint to canvas; trusting the most subtle hints, cues, suggestions and directions given by the mind in action. I once likened this process to riding a horse without reins or saddle; a horse that does whatever he damn well pleases, and that in order to ride this graceful and unpredictable animal, there are two things you have to be able to do- one, radical self-abandonment, and, two, paying attention." Thom spent the last several years of his life living in a small adobe house on the East rim of the Rio Grande Canyon, near the "horseshoe" curve on the road to Santa Fe. Here, he constantly painted and slept in the same room, heated in the winter by an old wood burning stove, cooled in summer by the thickness of the adobe walls. He hauled drinking water, using the suspect water from the shallow well only for washing and for watering his numerous plants. A happy recluse, he also termed himself a "social butterfly", loving to spend many an evening listening to the musicians play at the Adobe Bar in the Taos Inn. Thom also began a long relationship with the practice of Zen Buddhist sitting meditation in Taos, after initially studying with Joshu Sasaki Roshi in Jemez Springs. He then met the Soto Zen Monk, Kobun Chino Otagawa, who founded Hokoji, or Phoenix Light Temple, in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristos above Arroyo Seco . Thom became a regular student, attending many periods of practice and week long retreats. He once traveled to Europe with Kobun to visit and practice at temples founded by he and his students in Austria and Switzerland. Thom's wish was to be cremated and a memorial event will be held later in Taos. Look for the announcement in the Taos News.