Narrator> This program was made possible i from the National Endowment for the Arts.

♪ opening music ♪ ♪ From the wisp of a cloud ♪ ♪ to the seed of a song, ♪ it's talking to you, ♪ ♪ ♪ Telling you just ♪ how important ♪ ♪ it is to keep the ♪ earth going strong, ♪ ♪ it's talking to you.

♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ Pass It Along ♪ ♪ ♪ You got the message, ♪ ♪ Make it a part of this ♪ beautiful land, ♪ ♪ Pass it along, ♪ ♪ Keep it healthy ♪ and strong.

♪ ♪ We've got to ♪ pass it along.

♪ ♪ [can tap] [cabinet door shuts] [mug tap] [scraping sound] Crescent> Hi.

Lee> I wish you wouldn't do that.

Crescent> Sorry.

Lee> You want some breakfast?

Crescent> No, thanks.

You ready to get started?

Lee> After breakfast, Okay?

Okay.

All right.

But I'm going to eat while I watch.

Okay.

So, who are we talking about today?

He's a painter.

His name is Hundertwasser, Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Hundertwasser?

He's an Austrian, born in 1928, and, oh, you just have to see his work.

Millions of people have all over the world.

♪ cheerful music ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Crescent> Hundertwasser uses the spiral to kind of like life cycles, I guess.

He doesn't like straight lines, like you can draw with the ruler.

Once, when Hundertwasser was in Washington, D.C. he taught with a bunch of kids from the John Eaton School.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser> Everything ha everything is so clean and so perfect, so it must be beautiful.

But now I'm not alone.

There're many people who will say that this is ugly and, that something must be, must be changed here.

Something must be wrong, because people cannot be happy in here when they are behind straight lines and rulers and t-squares, everything is regulated, you know?

Isn't that terrible?

This poor people that live here like prisoners.

They cannot even open the windows.

You know, they sit inside, like, like in a cage, like in a cage.

And, there must breathe artificial air.

That's what I think.

And I would, you know, what I would like to do?

To make the windows jump.

To make the windows dance, you know?

<Like> Yeah.

Yes.

Not that they're not all in the same, in the same line, you see?

Then they're all in the same line.

The sets in the same window next to each other, repeating, except you see window on top of the other.

The windows are not happy, either, you see.

They must be very sad because they must all stand in line and stiff.

[inaudible] Yeah.

You know what I would do?

I would make something much bigger and some windows smaller, you see.

And then they dance, you see.

♪ Crescent> Hundertwasser plants trees everywhere, and even designs houses where trees and gr can all live right there with the people.

[inaudible] that project in Vienna.

It's got trees that live there.

I mean, really live there.

Hundertwasser calls them tree tenants and the windows there are all different.

♪ Friedensreich Hundertwasser> Be an architectural doctor.

See, I give you a terrible, ugly architecture, and you must be an architect yourself, and try to make it better.

You see, make the windows stiffer and taller, plant Just what you like; an artist to improve it so it doesn't get so straight and so ugly, That it gets more human.

All right.

Hand it out.

[silence] I myself already paint.

You must be careful and think this is not a painting for this building.

And you're an architectural doctor who improves an ugly architecture, and you have a big responsibility, you see, because you must think that there'll be people who'll be living there and they might not be happy with what you do to the building, you see.

You cannot live in a painting.

It must be something, where you think you want to live behind that window or the tree or the structure standing there, or a mosaic around the window and, and then you go slowly, you see.

No, I painted on photos, but I never have done it with children and it's very amazing because the children have the better ideas, almost a better ideas, because they're free to imagine a better world as they they feel it.

They are not restrained by, by taboos.

And, even I myself, were quite free as a free artist.

I have not the freedom of the children, you see.

Just like a waterfall running down the walls and changing the whole buildings and making real, big, big, big work.

But, children is a bad word because they're all grown ups.

They have, they have, I don't see that they are children in ideas.

They may be young, but they have, have exactly firm and steady and, and rounded up ideas about what has to be done and what has not to be done.

Student #1> Okay.

This tree was bare on the picture, so I put on some leaves and I put trees and grass on the roof up here, and I made arches instead of square windows, and you see the sun rising behind it.

And then there's a waterfall and an elevator.

And it was supposed to be energy efficient, so I painted off the front of the car and made it horse drawn.

And I'm starting to make a stained glass window.

Student #2> This is a row of stained glass going all the way through, and then the elevator comes out over the front of the building, so that the stained glass windows comes back and there are purple windows for the elevator to go up and down through, so they see a purple world on the outside.

And this is a staircase of grass coming down over here.

And there's a door behind the elevator that you can either get into the elevator or go into the building, and I'm making grass out in front of the building and color them; colored window panes.

Student #3> This is a waterfall coming down here, and it comes into a fountain at the bottom.

And this is a stained glass window in the middle.

I think it's probably about a hall right in there.

There's a few stained glass windows.

And then there's, there's trees on the roof, and there's trees going out of the windows, and there's hoses along the sides, and they can turn them on and water all the plants flowers.

And here's an elevator and a big dome in front of the, waterfall.

Student #4> These are colorful gutters, and they go two ways, and then they go down into there.

That's why that's blue.

This is the main entrance.

You wanted to make it colorful, and that's what I did.

This is an elevator.

And you get in it down here, you can go up or down.

This is a window that you can open or close.

And this is a big stained glass window.

And these are little entrances on the side.

Person off camera> So, what did you learn Student #4> Well, I learned to use lots of colors and to use different shapes and sizes, so it's more interesting than one size repeated constantly and straight, straight sharp lines are nice to use.

They look uncomfortable.

And when you have a building and it's straight, sharp and modern, you should fix it up like a doctor.

[laugh] And that's what we did with our paintings.

Hundertwasser> You see, it's quite easy to build to new houses when, there's nothing there.

But, the cities are so ugly because the ugly buildings are all standing there.

What should we do with the buildings which are already there?

The best way is to change them because you can't afford just to tear everything down, if it's ugly and to make something new.

No, you must go slowly, take the ugly buildings and change them until they get beautiful.

And now we will, I will show you how this can be done just by color.

I will lean out of the window in the first floor, and you will walk down from the first floor.

And, just this color, we make it a little beautiful, more beautiful, and it's very easy to be done; just this color.

Of course, you have better things.

If you have bricks and better materials like ceramics, it can be even more beautiful.

I have not much time, so we'll do just this color, and I hope you will like it.

Student #3> I've done a couple of things like this before, but not really this big.

And it's really fun to do this stuff because I don't know, I like painting and stuff.

And it's going to be part of the school the whole time.

That things shouldn't be straight and dull.

They should have color and they could be round and any shape that you really, that you want it to be.

And that if a wall is straight or your house is straight and doesn't have any color, or buildings, it makes you feel dull, straight.

But if something's round and kind of makes you feel happy with color, Friedensreich Hundertwasser> You see, the cities we live in, are so ugly and sterile because people don't have the rights to th That means the right to their outside skin.

But if everybody could change the outside world where he lives, the city would be so beautiful.

You can't imagine how beautiful.

So I think everybody who lives anywhere, if he's the owner or just the tenant, should have the right to lean out of his window and to change as far as his arm can reach, his outside walls until it fits him.

So that from far away, everybody can see there lives a man, a real man, you see.

Student #4> Some of my friends didn't really like it.

They probably, I mean they didn't understand it because it hadn't talked to Hundertwasser, see, he couldn't explain that it's better to be colorful than it is to be just a blank wall.

[wind chime sound] Lee> He's quite a character, Mr. Hundertwasser Crescent> I think he likes being a character.

Lee> You may be right about that.

But the important thing is, he has some wonderful ideas about how we can make a difference with the environment.

Crescent> He's our friend, just like you.

Lee> But I'm not doing anything to help the environment.

Crescent> Oh, I don't know.

I have a feeling you're doing a lot more than you think.

Today's a pretty day.

Why don't we go for a walk?

[sound of footsteps] Lee> Hey, wait a minute.

What do you mean I'm doing more than I think?

Crescent?

♪ closing music ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪