- The document discusses saving Hundertwasser's Paradise and expanding the legacy of artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. It encourages empowering oneself and others to help preserve his work and message. - It describes Hundertwasser's artistic style and philosophy, which emphasized respect for nature and an organic, intuitive approach. He warned against destroying paradise and advocated living simply. - The author recounts their unexpected acquisition of Hundertwasser's largest mural, called "Paradise," and the challenges of moving and storing the 4,000 pound work despite having no money or knowledge of the artist. They were eventually able to relocate the mural after threats from a

1. A modest proposal in which we answer the how and why , the what and the way ,” You
can empower yourself and others to help save Hundertwassers Paradise and expand his
legacy and influence in the larger world , that needs to hear and heed his message.
It is said in the Bible that many are called only a few will answer. We are counting on
those few; perhaps you are one amongst them who will heed our call for help. Will our
words fall on deaf ears or be lost in translation. Will our cry eco, lost and unanswered,
among the desert stones and canyons in a wilderness that pretends to be a civilization of
humankind. Are there people in the wasteland , that do not whisper like dry reeds, who
are not hollow men who do nothing as the world ends not with a bang but with a
whimper.
Hundertwasser was a prophet in a secular age who spoke out loudly a warning and a
promise. “Paradise is within reach do not destroy it, protect and save it.”. He spoke in
words, in images and in the architectural language of buildings. He spoke with a
landscapers tongue, with earth and water, grass, flower and tree .He spoke naked before
the world with two beautiful maidens flanking him on either side, naked and beautiful, as
any spring lily in the field. Solomon in all his glory was not equal to these. Nature was
his temple and his life and art were the practice of his religion. He echoed the beliefs of
Albert Schweitzer that the common and unifying theme of all religion was a respect for
life, all life, plant and animal. He followed artistically in the lineage of Klimpt and
Sheila influenced by Paul Klee and the naïve sensibility if Rousseau. He developed his
own unique style, organic, vegative, and intuitive, driven by a subconscious and aesthetic
imperative. The beauty of nature in color he sought to convey to his viewers.
Very interesting you may say but what has this to do with you and how can you save
Hundertwasser’s Paradise. Where is this going? I have not told you yet and I cannot tell
you really. What is the direction of your footprints? What is the size of your carbon
footprint and the cost and consequences of you lifestyle to the paradise you inhabit. Have
you been a good and grateful gardener and will you add to the beauty that surrounds you.
When you die will what you leave behind you fertilize the tree of life? Will that tree bare
fruit that is sweet, nutritious, and good for strangers who will never know your name?
Will you live after death feeding the roots of that tree in the land of the happily dead as
Hundertwasser does. You living your life will answer these Questions not I. How you
answer that Question will matter and will be recorded in the book of life. You and your
children’s children will feel the consequences of your actions and inactions. Your choices
matter whether you notice, believe or care. Apathy and fear are the illnesses of modern
civilization in a consumer driven culture that wants you to be discontent with yourself
and to solve your problems by shopping or through escapism and hedonism. It tells you
that you and those around you are worthless and meaningless and bad and selfish at the
core. But they can help you if you will only listen and do whatever is necessary to buy
what they are selling i.e. the right house, clothes, car, food drink, furniture and make up.
If you do all they ask believing that you chose freely, you will be content and happy and
an important and valuable member of society worthy of respect in the eyes of those who
judge and matter.

2. Hundertwasser, his art, his life, his philosophy and his ecology stood in contrast to the
prevailing social dogma that underlies the cult of consumerism that threatens our world
with a slow painful demise. He said in so many different ways that you and all mankind
were basically good and intrinsically valuable and precious. Naked and natural, simple
and unadorned you and nature are beautiful, valuable and important, needing nothing and
no ones stamp of approval. You do not have to buy anything, join any group or believe
any thing to crown yourself King and celebrate the majesty of yourself and all the life in
the universe that surrounds you. Others deluded by an opposing world view may ridicule
and belittle you. They may accuse you of megalomania and arrogance because without
evidence that is socially recognized you hold yourself in such high esteem. That you
equally esteem others and all life around you both plant and animal and recognize the
beauty that is innate and unqualified in all others is immaterial to their arguments. Your
life style and your choices contrast and draw in to Question the Status Quo and the
cultural and normative attitudes that support and drive our consumer driven economies.
It is no surprise then that he is not understood or loved by all. Social critics who are
gadflies are tolerated at best. How far did he think he could travel and into what foreign
territories on an artistic license. At 55 he started his architectural career without formal
training. He called himself a House Doctor and practiced his brand of medicine with a
decorative medicine of his own making. He said he fought the strait line all his life and
that one should act as if there was a war on rationing oneself. He said people should ask
for less not more and then paradise could belong to us all. Did he make himself a Drum
Major for equitable justice in the north-south dialogue between developed and
developing nations? Was he elected by others to lead a global voluntary simplicity
movement? Did he have a degree in philosophy, Psychology? Sociology or ecology? No!
Then what entitled him to such strong opinions about so many subjects to which he had
no formal training?
His critics will submit that all this is clear evidence of his hubris and egomaniacal
tendencies. He was once asked his opinion of his own architecture and he replied, My
design is not so good, it is just that so many architects are so bad. Was this false modesty
combined with an overly critical attitude towards others? I think not, I have another
deeper theory which I will propose for your consideration. I think he had a numinous
encounter with his Archetypal God-Self and that all his thought, action and art was
colored, formed and emboldened by the experience. Read the work of Carl Jung and his
theories about the archetypal God-Self and tell me that I am not wrong. His conviction in
all things was founded in this experience and in the premise that we all possess this
inherent greatness. He said his greatness was his ability to draw others into becoming
themselves. This is the greater part of his legacy and the gift he would give us all if we
did not shirk from it and the responsibilities it entails. This is the entry way to the
paradise he experienced and that is open and available to us all.
How do I know this and what qualifies my opinion. I who never met him or had even
heard of him until I stumbled accidentally on his largest painting ever, a wall mural called
Paradise, its shorter appellation. It was three weeks from its destruction when it was
offered to me. Simply, it was mine for the taking the only problem was that it was a wall

3. mural that weighed 4,000 lbs. I accepted the challenge and it became my big problem that
and the fact that I was totally broke. I would have to borough the money to move and
store it. Who lends money to someone who has none and who lost $150,000 in a
construction business, and has no credit. The only thing I had was a deed of gift from the
synagogue that gave me the painting made by a famous painter I hade never heard of
Hundertwasser. Most people I spoke with or about it said Hunter-who and would not lend
me anything even when I was offering %100 apr. Thank god for parents and brothers and
sisters and girlfriends. Girlfriend singular, not plural, semantical distinctions can be
important in some relationships. They all helped me find the money to pay all the costs of
the move and storage of Hundertwassers great wall mural Paradise. It was not easy
though to gain there confidence and my mother insisted that I sign it over to her until I
raised the money to pay everyone back.
The details of the move itself are another chapter in the story, suffice to say that it was an
adventure and not easy. I called a friend who is a documentary film maker and he shot the
move on a high resolution digital camera. Another old friend shot stills on a beautiful
Cannon and has continued to document the project through all its stages over the last ten
months. We also shot video of the second move that I did myself with one helper after the
painting and my life was threatened by an ex-friend and ex-employee. He was acting as
my secretary doing my e-mail because I did not have a computer or know how to use one.
We moved the painting in a hurry after I had a fight with him after we received a half
million dollar offer for the painting from an agent working supposedly for some
billionaire art collector in NY. They offered to buy the mural in as is condition. That is
the same price that the most expensive Hundertwasser has sold at auction to date. That
was too much for my employee who claimed that I could not have moved the mural
without his help, and the hourly salary I was paying was not enough anymore. He said
that if I did not give him 15% of the paintings value I would never live to spend the
money. We turned down both the art agent’s offer and my old friend and employee. How
did I know what the value of the painting was and should I sell before I can even
pronounce his name. We needed to do some research and to move the painting from the
boatyard shed where it could be vandalized by my threatening ex-friend, ex-employee. I
reported him to the cops and moved the painting again to a more expensive and secure
location. I rented a boat trailer and moved it myself with one helper. It cost me three
hundred dollars. I video taped the move; it was pretty incredible and easier than anyone
imagined. After all that is one reason that I was given the painting, no one thought it
could be moved in one piece. They said they had offered it to everyone for a year and had
no takers. I moved it the day before it was to be demolished in a big renovation to an old
mansion and owners who had been mislead about the murals real economic value. I
would find out latter by whom and how and why, latter in the course of my research. I
still had no real idea of its value in economic, historical or artistic terms. I had an
intuition that this would be my ticket to freedom from the working world that had been
foretold to me in a prescient dream a decade earlier. In the dream I had seen the face and
hand of god, he told me he would help me break out of the prison I was in and escape the
daily grind on the chain gang. He showed me two diamonds in his hand and told me to
run hard when I saw the first one and harder still in the direction of the second. This was I
felt the first diamond and its name was fittingly Paradise.