Turning Dreams into Reality

Tony Pemberton a Director and Producer of film recommended I contact Witcraft a script and production company in Vienna, He said that they produced a film of his and recommended them highly. Ursula Wolschlager in particular he gave stellar reviews as a producer. I went to there website and check them out, they seem like perfect partners for our documentary film, Restoring Paradise. see for yourselves at http://www.witcraft.at/en/wolschlager.html

He said that he thought they could not only help develop the script but with the production and the fundraising through a grant from the Austrian Government. Hundertwasser is a national icon and an industry to himself. I have examined all things Hundertwasser, his creative output is phenomenal and extensive. The economic activity derived from this dead artistic icon if calculated is considerable. Like Antonio Gaudi is to Barcelona, he is to Vienna, he is the #3 tourist attraction in the city.

We acquired this painting as a gift from people who did not know its value and would have destroyed it. We saved this lost national treasure of the Austrian peoples would it be so strange to think they might appreciate that considerable effort by one American family that their government might fund the documentary film.

The film well made and well distributed would educate people around the world to whom he remains yet unknown. It would serve many functions beyond increasing the value of our painting Paradise and all his other works. I think he is undervalued and misunderstood by many including thous in his own county. There would be strings attached to the grant of course, His archive in Vienna,, archiv-office@harel.at would supervise and have oversight and the production crew and staff would be Austrians. The money spent would then circulate in the Austrian local economy and the influx of new tourism would bring in extra foreign currency.

We have chosen the best person in the world for the actual conservation work. Ralf Wittig, atelier@ralfwittig.at is a skilled Austrian citizen who knew and worked with Hundertwasser for a decade and works now with his museum and Archive. He issued a five page report on the condition and imortance of this remarkable work. The hair on his arm stood up and he got goosebumps when he first saw this painting. That kind of emotional connection can not be taught at any university. That personal understanding and chemistry uniquely qualifies him and can nor be faked

I talked yesterday with an agent of Sotheby's in NYC who said that they might fund the restoration efforts if we agree to consign the work for auction through them. Harry Rand the Smithsonian Senior curator, and Harvard Art Historian who wrote the book on Hundertwasser told me that he thought we could get a grant for the restoration as well. I told him that we could not believe that someone in ignorance of its value gifted us this painting and we had a hard time believing that others who do not know or care about us would pay for the film and the restoration. He said that we do not understand that those in the art and cultural world especially the foundations live to save what is precious. They do not care about us only about the life of a painting and its future. It not only outlived its makes it will out live us all and the ripples of its effect on the world will continue beyond our lifetimes in ways that will be seen and unseen.

This project is moving slowly in the right directing growing green and gold like moss and mold. Hundertwasser spoke often of this slow unfolding that is not in our control but driven by and unseen force in a universe where our individual and collective thought and action matters.