STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2013 Cynthia Mailman, an artist, feminist, preservationist and community champion hailed as a \u201cforce of nature\u201d for her outspoken activism, died Friday night in Calvary Hospital, Brooklyn, two weeks shy of her 83rd birthday. <\/p>\n
The cause of death was pancreatic cancer, her family said. <\/p>\n
A longtime Stapleton resident, Ms. Mailman was a prolific artist known for figurative and landscape works done in a \u201ccool, pared-down\u201d style.<\/p>\n
Born and raised in the Bronx, she graduated from the former School of Industrial Arts, now the High School of Art and Design, in Manhattan. She earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in art and art education from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and later, an MFA at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. <\/p>\n
She taught in the New York City public school system, at the former Livingston College of Rutgers University and at Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York. <\/p>\n
In 1979, Ms. Mailman was commissioned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to create a mural for the PATH concourse at the original World Trade Center station. Titled \u201cCommuter Landscape,\u201d the 54-foot painting was a view of the Pulaski Skyway through the train windows, seen by over 100,000 people a day. <\/p>\n
The mural, which took a year to complete, was destroyed in the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993. <\/p>\n
As a founder and president of the Mud Lane Society for the Renaissance of Stapleton, Ms. Mailman fought against projects that threatened the historic integrity of the area, including a coal pipeline, a NASCAR racetrack and a sugar refinery. <\/p>\n
She was equally vocal about women\u2019s rights and antisemitism. <\/p>\n
\u201cCynthia set the gold standard for neighborhood preservation and civic responsibility,\u201d said Kamillah Hanks, city Councilmember and a Stapleton neighbor who appreciated Ms. Mailman as a friend, mentor and supporter.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you met her, you could never forget her,\u201d said Staten Island artist Diane Matyas. \u201cCynthia was bigger than life, with a powerful personality. She casts a long shadow as an artist and community member on Staten Island, and will be sorely missed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Mailman\u2019s survivors include her husband of 60 years, Silver Sullivan; her brother-in-law, Dr. Philip Rosen, and a nephew, Julian Rosen. She was predeceased by her sister, Pamela Rosen, and her parents, Julius Mailman and Clara Russler Mailman. <\/p>\n
A funeral service will take place Sunday at noon in Menorah Chapels, New Springville. Burial will be in Mount Hebron Cemetery, Queens. <\/p>\n
A complete profile will follow in the Advance\/SILive.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2013 Cynthia Mailman, an artist, feminist, preservationist and community champion hailed as a \u201cforce of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-78092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}