(male announcer) Production costs for Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations have been paid for in part by Fred and Lou Hartwig, generous supporters of Kansas City Public Television, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(man) ♪ Welcome to a show about things you can see ♪ ♪ without going far, and a lot of them are free.

♪ ♪ If you thought there was nothing ♪ ♪ in the old heartland, ♪ ♪ you ought to hit the blacktop ♪ ♪ with these fools in a van.

♪ ♪ Look out, they're driving hard, ♪ ♪ checking out art in their own backyard.

♪ ♪ Randy does the steering so he won't hurl.

♪ ♪ Mike's got the map, such a man of the world.

♪ ♪ That's Don with the camera, ♪ ♪ kind of heavy on his shoulder.

♪ ♪ And that giant ball of tape, it's a world record holder.

♪ ♪ Look out, they're driving hard, ♪ ♪ checking out art in their own backyard.

♪ ♪ Look out, they're driving hard, ♪ ♪ checking out the world in their own backyard, ♪ ♪ checking out the world in their own backyard.

♪ ♪ (Don) Dear TV Mailbag, what's wrong with this picture?

Hi, Don, the camera guy here, but not behind the camera and not quite ready for my close-up either.

There, that's better.

Though to borrow a phrase, we're not quite out of the forest yet.

The Forest Motel, that is, which seems somewhat Spartan even for TV weasels like these.

(Randy) I always like rooms with those little iron marks.

(Don) On the carpet.

The iron mark on the carpet says someone was here.

(Don) Kind of like motel crop circles.

Yeah, there you go.

(Don) I guess lodging options are limited here in the North Jersey woods.

At least the forest is conveniently located just a few farm fields and babbling brooks away from our first stop of the day, Luna Parc.

That's parc with a C like it's spelled in Italy.

Now, Ricky Boscarino, sometimes known as King Ricky, did attend art school, a prestigious one whose initials rhyme with Frisbee.

But what he learned there has little to do with what he's doing here.

I think the second day I was here, I actually painted the house yellow, purple, and green, and then a couple of new windows, some of the froufrou on the edges, and then that's how it started.

And then, you know, 15 years later, this is what happened.

[laughing] I try not to take things apart.

I just kind of try to add to them, just layering and layering.

So that's the effect.

I'm constantly searching and scavenging and dumpster diving always.

So that's really part of it is the collecting of it.

The trick is try to keep it looking good before it gets used, or else it starts looking like a junkyard.

(Randy) Are there different segments that we have names for here?

(Ricky) Well, this is the illuminated garden.

(Randy) And it lights up quite nice, I hear.

(Ricky) Yes, it's a pretty spectacular sight at night.

You know, it's incredibly quiet during the days.

And when I'm not traveling on the road, I could spend days here just, like, doing projects and, you know, endless all day.

(Mike) Puttering.

Puttering, yes.

I come from a long line of putterers.

Bottles are a running theme here.

(Randy) Do you choose the bottles for the way they'll light up?

Do you choose them for the color?

(Ricky) I am partial to the blue.

This is actually-- this is a fun project.

These--what I call the bamboo forest.

These are water bottles filled with cement and then plastic stripped away.

This is the monument to my beloved cat Brel-- Jacques Brel.

Yes, I won all of these trophies.

[all chuckling] What's that one for?

Woodshopping.

Oh, this is when you were in your hockey days.

Your hockey career.

That was just recent.

(Ricky) This is the chapel of the saints.

This is dedicated to my grandfather who witnessed a miracle when he was a young man in Sicily.

He witnessed this young crippled boy being healed.

Oh, here's the monument to my little potbellied pig Webster.

(Mike) Where's Webster now?

(Ricky) There.

(Mike) Oh, no.

(Randy) Some forms that appeal to you in particular?

You like the kind of-- (Ricky) A good animal--a good swirl is pretty popular here.

This was a five-year project.

I went from one extreme to the other.

All I had was the outhouse and a very third-world bathroom with really ugly plumbing.

I think I tiled for three months straight, like, literally every single day.

Get up in the morning.

Tile all day.

Towards the end of the project, I just wanted the thing done.

Sometimes I don't understand-- I don't know where it comes from, you know, just to be driven, sometimes to the point where I don't sleep, and I'm not eating.

So I have to always kind of keep that in check also.

This took a long time to lay out.

Because it looks random, but it's really not.

(Mike) It's about the coolest floor I've ever seen.

It is cool, isn't it?

It really is.

If you look at it, and you think, "Wow, this is really great."

In my next addition to the house, I'm going to have-- calling it the ballroom.

It's going to be probably 20x30, and it'll be just like this.

It'll be like this floor.

(Mike) Do you see things in that kind of a scale?

I mean, that's a long ways out.

(Ricky) Yeah, I plan to live to 100, and I plan to never leave here.

So, you know, I've got projects planned at least for the next 20 years.

I don't see any separation between medium.

You just--it's just a manipulation of materials.

When I make the molds for the cement, they come out very much like the pottery.

And then sometimes the pottery gets topped on top of that.

So you'll notice there are some ceramic pieces on top holding up the globes.

As of now, pottery's just-- it's kind of just an expensive hobby.

In my old age, that's what I'll be doing is-- I'll be doing pottery.

But I plan to retire as a potter.

(Randy) You mean from putterer to potter?

[Ricky laughing] (Don) But wait; there's still more.

A line of jewelry being made back here by Ricky and his pal Tuck.

Moons and swirls that keep the funds coming to keep the lights at Luna Parc humming.

However, one thing they don't have here is the world's largest ball of videotape.

It's heavy.

Wow.

Cool.

What do you think?

It's not that heavy.

Wow.

I mean, it really looks kind of like Luna, doesn't it?

It's cool.

Can I have it?

[both laughing] (Don) Well, it would alleviate some of the crowding in our Chrysler, but cooler heads did prevail, and we left Luna with our big orb still aboard.

Next stop: New York.

Haverstraw, to be exact, south of the Tappan Zee where the Hudson River runs its widest and where a Polish émigré named Ted Lu--Lud-- I could use some help here.

Ludwiczak.

Ludwiczak.

(Don) Ludwiczak has gone to the head of the class in his new career, which started shortly after his old one, making contact lenses, ended.

(Mike) You didn't cut your first stone until you were 59?

(Ted) No, about maybe 62.

(Mike) 62, you started, and you've done all this?

Don't ask me how old I am now, you know?

(Mike) Ok ay, and I'm not going to ask, but how old are you?

77.

77, and you're still cutting the stone?

Yes, still cutting stone.

[tapping sound] It seems like rocks like me.

Stone likes me.

[chuckling] Wow.

That's where it started.

This is the beginning.

(Ted) I wasn't used to being retired, you know?

[laughing] I'm active man.

So I built that seawall to protect my property from the hurricanes.

That wall seems like kind of naked or grayish.

[chuckling] So I got to dress it up.

Well, this is the first one.

This got knocked at the Andrew storm.

There's plenty of rocks laying around.

So one looks kind of familiar.

He look at me.

I look at him, you know?

I think I saw a nose, an eye.

So I adopt another eye and mouth and lips.

I went next day morning to take a look.

I see how if he still there.

But he was kind of a sad face.

Maybe I give him company.

So I looked at another rock.

I cut, so there were two of them.

I went down to river.

I see another rock that seems like it had a face in it.

[chuckling] So I put a third one.

And after that, I keep chiseling.

I remember I was going to stop at 12.

But then I missed the counting, and it was 13.

Then it was 20.

So I finally filled up the whole wall, the 60 feet of wall.

So I put 42 heads.

They little weather-beaten, you know?

(Randy) Some of them are wearing necklaces, it looks like.

I found the shells here, so I figure I give them little color, you know.

(Don) Are any of them wearing contacts?

[chuckling] [saw buzzing] At the beginning, I use only chisels and hammer.

Then after ten years, my friends, you know, the other artists, the ones who use power tools.

So now I use half and half.

(Randy) Didn't I read that that you used some tools of your own making?

Yeah, that's right.

I found, like, a lawn mower blade, extremely good steel, very hard steel.

So I don't have to sharpen all the time.

(Randy) What, do you use the same kinds of techniques that you did when you were making contact lenses?

(Ted) Oh, yeah, I had the feelings.

I had that--that-- that touch and feeling.

(Mike) It's kind of about what the rock tells you, right?

(Ted) The rock--something hiding there, you know?

So you got to peel it out, you know, get, you know-- But sometimes they tough.

They don't want to reveal their, you know, real shape, so I have to help.

I have to dig it in.

And then it come all right, you know, in the end.

There's a couple more heads here.

(Mike) Yeah, just a couple.

(Ted) I guess we understand each other, you know?

When you put your life into it or effort, then they come like a family almost, you know.

(Don) At first, Ted's heads all had names, but even he couldn't keep up with that.

We said our fond farewells, took one last look at the view, then resumed our ride upriver, across it, and onto the kind of roads that have been known to separate Randy from his lunch.

There's some irony here, and the irony is that we've chosen this route on account of food-- a place in Patterson whose legend precedes it; though, perhaps the cuisine takes a backseat to its decor.

(Randy) That's no ordinary parking lot now, is it?

(Don) Somebody spilled a lot of paint.

(Don) Yes, there is a Rosemary.

She's been doing this for 35 years, and, yes, she does make quite a first impression.

Are you from Texas?

Yes, I am; I'm a Houstonian.

Tostadas.

And the guacamole.

(Randy) Ro semary, is that yo ur Texas hair color?

This is something that I've done in the last ten years, because I cannot stand gray.

It's definitely a color not found in nature.

(Randy) Sh ould we eat the food an d shut up?

Yes, y'all go right ahead, because I've got to get back to work.

(Don) Did I mention this place is a visual feast?

Sorry, but here's one I just can't resist.

Hey, there's a purple hair in my taco.

[both laughing] (Don) Quiet; they'll all want one.

[all chuckling] [tractor engine rumbling] (Mike) Did you see that?

A little bit of clearing sky ahead.

(Randy) This is good.

(Don) It certainly is.

Otherwise, you're bound to see lots of this and this, and worst of all, this.

We have nothing to fear but lack of beer.

(Don) Hey, come on, this is FDR's old stomping grounds after all.

So we decided to stomp around them.

But due to bad weather and construction, this is all we could see, the highlight of which was the New Dealer's dumpster.

But that can only hold our attention so long.

So we headed back out the gates and back to Hyde Park, when all of a sudden, something neither Roosevelt nor Vanderbilt caught our collective eye.

(Mike) What is it?

That?

(Mike) Yeah.

Alien spaceship car.

(Mike) Alien spaceship car.

Really?

Did you see the aliens?

(Don) He could tell us, but then he'd have to kill us, of course.

Besides, we've got better things to do.

Despite the drizzle, the boys seemed doggedly determined to play catch in nearby Rock City at the literal fork in the road.

O-oh!

(Don) Now, that's just plain dumb.

But these two producers have proven time and again that dumb luck works nearly as well as being good.

And luck seems to have found us once again a few miles south of Spencertown for our dry arrival at Roy Kanwit's Taconic Sculpture Park, where a giant head on the hillside lures passers-by from the parkway below.

So this is Mother Earth.

She's actually the same size as the head of the Statue of Liberty.

A lot of people think it's a male Indian.

(Mike) What is that?

Concrete?

(Roy) That's--yeah, it's cement over a steel framework.

(Mike) Uh-huh, and how much cement is there?

(Roy) I'm guessing three tons or so.

You know, it's hollow.

So would you like to come into my head?

Come in.

Why, thank you.

(Randy) Actually I was kind of curious about the guy with the-- (Roy) That's the first big cement piece I did.

It's Dionysus, the Greek god of the vine.

(Randy) I'm looking at him and thinking-- for a minute here, stand here.

It's not a self-portrait.

No, it's not.

All us bearded guys look alike, I know, but my head is not quite that big.

(Randy) We ll, it's bigger.

It's-- [laughing] From your perspective, yes.

This has got a little contribution from the birds that we don't really appreciate, but this is the hardest piece of stone I ever met in my life.

I feel like a Greek god.

(Roy) Well, you look like one.

I look like one.

(Roy) We won't say which one.

(Don) Patheticus.

(Roy) Yeah, I've always loved the ancient world: Greeks, Egyptians, Romans.

You know, I think if you look around, you can see a bit of their inspiration.

There's something, you know, distinctly Mediterranean about the female figure and the vegetation combined with it.

They're sort of fertility goddesses.

Usually the plant shapes that I use are something growing in the field or something growing in the house.

Her head over there was a houseplant we had-- you know, inspired by a houseplant we had.

You know, I can do a normal body with a normal head.

But, you know, after you've done that for a while, you want to do something different.

What is that behind us?

Well, it started out as a guesthouse.

And we were going to build further up the hill for the main house.

But then it just sort of kept growing.

And we decided this would be the house.

The stone was free.

It came off the land, those old stone walls.

So we like free materials.

We'll take those anytime.

And I love stone.

What can I say?

As soon as you put it up, it looks old.

You know, we've been here for 20 years.

And I was in Vermont for almost 20 years also, where I learned marble carving and various other rural arts.

You know, being a city boy, I sort of learned how to survive out here in the country.

Don't walk into my wife's lavender patch.

Is your wife an integral part of when you say, "Us," is she-- How does she fit into this?

(Roy) Well, she has a regular job.

(Mike) She's paying the bills.

(Roy) She pays a lot of them.

[laughing] I do the flowers, and he does the grunt work.

He does the digging of the trees, you know?

[chuckling] And he does the stacking of the rocks.

The reason people like the place is because the sculptures fit into the landscape.

[metal clanging] And the flowers and the greenery just add to that.

He's been in The Times.

He's been in The Globe.

And people come to see it.

And we're always worried like, "Oh, no.

[giggling] "They've driven a long ways to see this.

Are they going to be disappointed?"

But, no.

Man, that flying nun thing was cool.

(Randy) I'm thinking Titanic.

I'm thinking you're the king of the head.

(Roy) I think I've always had in mind doing a lot of sculptures that would fit in with the bigger landscape.

Of course, that clashes with the idea of selling them.

(Randy) Oh, there's some heat.

(Don) See, it always comes back to balls, either throwing them or showing them off.

[laughing] It's heavy.

Of course it is.

It's the world's largest.

What were you thinking?

(Don) Clearly, we weren't.

But that's never stopped us before, and it's not stopping us now.

As we bid adieu to this nice Taconic duo and nudge north ever so slightly towards the pastorally place, Berkshire Farm Center, where a Yankee fan named Ray Materson awaits us.

Ray works out here with troubled youth, but his real claim to fame is socks and the tiny intricate art he makes from them, a skill he honed doing hard time for drug-related crimes, prior to being paroled in 1995.

(Ray) Certainly when I first started, I had no idea where it was going to go.

But I knew that after I had completed the first piece, which I did, which was the University of Michigan emblem, and all of my fellow inmates started coming up to me and saying, you know, "Yo, man, where'd you get that?

Yo, make me something," you know, and offering to pay me in cartons of cigarettes and bags of coffee, I said, "Yeah, sure, I'll do that."

But was I taught?

No, everything was pretty much trial and error.

And when I first began this, you know, my fingers were quite bloodied.

And, you know, I had some serious calluses on the tips of my fingers after a while.

But I've gotten much better with the sewing needle over the years.

This is called Covenant and Betrayal.

It's Christ with the Apostles.

I sketched the idea, and then I transferred it onto the cloth, you know, as best I can, and then essentially paint with needle and thread.

Raw materials, gentlemen.

(Mike) Jeez.

You have the fuzzy thread, which is the cotton.

And it breaks and frays quite easily.

But that's supported and gets the elastic with this nylon thread.

It's strong.

It's got a nice sheen to it.

And that's what I actually use.

And the sewing hoop that I use is a converted Rubbermaid dish.

There weren't many craft and art supplies in the state prison.

We're talking a scale here so infinitesimal, it's mind-boggling.

(Ray) I was asked once, "How many stitches are there per square inch?"

So not having a whole lot to do while I was incarcerated, I actually measured out a square 1/4 of an inch and counted every stitch in the square 1/4 of an inch, then multiplied it out, and it works out to about 1,200 stitches to the square inch.

(Randy) Do you do many that have the actual prison motif?

(Ray) I think I did maybe one prison piece while-- two prison pieces while I was incarcerated.

For me, this was an escape from the reality that I was in.

So I would do pieces that depicted dreams that I had of being on a beach with a loved one, so I would escape into there.

And I would, you know, working very close.

Because, you know, I'm probably, you know, eight inches away from this when I'm working on it.

So I'm right there.

People are constantly amazed.

They say, "I didn't realize socks came in that many different colors."

And they do.

I mean, at last count, and it's been, you know, a few years now, but I counted the number of colors on my sock palette, so to speak, and I have 120 or so or more actually shades and colors that are all from sock thread.

(Don) Ray is now an author as well.

He cowrote this book with his wife, Melanie, and uses his own life story as proof that art's a way to help kids cope.

The center's grounds are a lovely place for pausing and reflecting.

But naturally, there's no time for that.

Someone's decided we have to make Lake George by dark.

Though being passed by a Dodge Dart is never a good sign.

And neither, I suspect, is this.

(Mike) Where is everybody?

It's a theme park that's closed.

(Randy) I thought we just got a really great parking place.

Look, where is everybody?

(Don) No, the diving horse has gone home for the day.

And though there may be plenty of muffler men inside, this is all I can see out here.

(Mike) Pa ul Bunyan.

Whoa, chopping some wood.

Well, you know, Bunyans are big up here.

Over there, though, not a muffler man, but one giant being.

Aren't you glad I found this, Don?

(Don) No.

(Mike) How far did we drive to see this?

How far out of our way did we go to see this?

And who do I got to call to get off this damn show?

I'm calling my agent.

I'm going to get off this show.

[laughing] Let's go.

Hop in, Don.

(Randy) That reminds me, we need to go.

(Mike) I don't think anything's open in Vermont on Sunday morning in the rain.

Everybody's at church.

(Don) Now, if this were football, they'd be giving us the two-minute warning.

In other words, not enough time to really do much but too much to do nothing at all.

And that's got these weasels spooked.

I don't know that we've ever really come up short like this before.

It's a sticky wicket.

(Don) Yes, it is.

And that's why we're breezing by the big Bug-holdin' ape on Highway 7, the one they call Queen Connie for reasons we can't quite fathom and turning back to seek our salvation through syrup.

Hey, we've seen museums for mustard and earthquakes, barbed wire, and lighters.

Why not maple?

(Mike) Oh, there's a charge.

(woman) Uh -oh, is that thing running?

(Mike) It is running.

Turn it off.

Curator says, "No camcorders, please."

(Don) We can't believe that there is a museum of maple.

Maple sugaring, yeah.

Maple sugaring?

Maple sugaring.

History of the maple su garing process, making of the maple sugar.

Very interesting.

This is the medium amber that they're talking about.

Oh, man.

[smacking lips] Oh, a delicate maple flavor, probably best used on desserts.

I'm kind of waffling on that issue.

I'm not taking the tour, but is it really the most misunderstood agricultural commodity of Vermont?

(Mary) Absolutely.

What's the second most?

(Mary) Don't have any idea.

(Mike) Wow, that's it.

That's the one.

I'd like to thank the academy.

Would we enjoy that syrup more if we knew the history of maple syrup?

Yeah.

[Don chuckling] (Mary) Missing out not taking the tour.

[laughing] Mary said it's a labor of love to make these things.

(Mike) Well, you know-- (Don) Hey, my dentist said to eat all of that I can.

Ah, yeah.

(Don) So mission accomplished, I'd have to say.

Two minutes down and some cavities to go.

Oh, man, that's pure maple goodness.

(Mike) Oh, you're just misunderstanding.

(Don) Sweetly from Vermont, this is Don, the camera guy, signing off.

(female announcer) To learn more about the sights you've seen on this show and plan a road trip of your own, visit Rare Visions on the web at: You can also purchase DVDs, videotapes, and a companion book to this award-winning series.

Call: Captioning and audio description provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

Captioning and audio description byCaptionMax www.captionmax.com (Don) That's odd.

Oh, there it goes.

Oh, boy, it's a whole different set of muscles.

[tapping noise] Whoop--did I hit you?

No.

[Randy whispering] You can't take the camcorder in there.

We might steal the slide show.

And start our own maple syrup industry back there in the Midwest?

(male announcer) Production costs for Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations have been paid for in part by Fred and Lou Hartwig, generous supporters of Kansas City Public Television, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.