Moose and Grizzly Bear’s VillePeter Valentine (1942 - 2022)

Status

Threatened

Address

37 Brookline Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139, United States

Built

1991

About the Artist/Site

Peter Valentine’s artwork reflects and supports his goal to create absolute balance and to disarm menacing energies. He has “spent 40 years developing an ultimate system of security rooted in the nature of primeval energies, which are the bottom line energy that sustains and propels life.”

Valentine is probably best known for the purple painted “Cosmic Moose and Grizzly Bear” fence he created around his house at the corner of Green and Brookline Streets in Cambridge. He built the fence in 1991 to present what he was interested in, not what he considered “the boring news, media and advertising images and designs that are projected at people as they go living their lives.” The fence features wildlife, including the moose, big, awkward, and rich in cosmic knowledge. The artist describes it this way: "On the fence is written a panorama of sounds and thought modalities bumping into one another to produce the sense of mystical mind that is necessary to understand life in the way that it should be understood, in the way that produces a sense of wonder and interest…. The Fence is a living energy which evokes the viewers’ divine essence from their deep cosmic self."

The fence is considered a neighborhood treasure and locals are looking for means to ensure its preservation without restricting Valentine’s ability to continue to work on it as he pleases.

~Peter Valentine and Cathy Zusy

 

Update, March 2021: Valentine's home was flooded when a pipe burst on February 2, 2021. A GoFundMe has been started to support repairs. 

Update, January 2023: Peter Valentine passed away on August 9, 2022, at the age of 80. The future of his environment is unknown at this time. 

Map & Site Information

37 Brookline Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139 us
Latitude/Longitude: 42.362867 / -71.1026853

Nearby Environments

Previous Slide Button Next Slide Button

Post your comment

Comments

No one has commented on this page yet.