MidHudsonNews [dot] com is reporting the 24-year-old mural depicting a barefoot black woman working in a field that became the source of tension between Red Hook town officials and the Northern Duchess NAACP and community members has now been painted over by the building's owner. “It is clear to me that the barefoot woman it depicts is a slave who most likely was owned by Dutch settlers of Red Hook,” wrote Eloise Maxey, Northern Dutchess NAACP president in letters to Red Hook Village Mayor Ed Blundell and Town Supervisor Robert McKeon. Maxey asked the mural be removed in honor of Juneteenth and that it be replaced with something inclusive. The mural, depicting a female Dutch farmer harvesting apples, had darkened over time according to the artist, Gloria De Pietro. Over the weekend Todd Baright, the building owner, painted over the art. Baright said he had been planning to paint over the mural to make way for something new since last year. “I was planning to paint over the mural in the spring but then came the COVID-19 pandemic, which put the plans on hold until now,” he said. Guiliana De Pietro, the artist's daughter, lashed out on social media June 21, denouncing Baright's actions. She claimed the mural was defaced by vandals, calling those who did it “trash.” Read the full story at MidHudsonNews [dot] com.