Learning Labs convening in Choctaw, Mississippi
(The WK Kellogg Foundation)
Learning Labs is a national movement to radically improve early learning (birth to age 5) for all children in the United States.
Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the movement consists of a partnership of four innovative, diverse organizations across the country. In May of 2012, they came together in Choctaw to teach, share and dream for a better future for all American children. They also took time to remember those who worked to pave this road in a past, not so long ago, when such efforts were anything but welcome.
Dog and Pony produced, directed and documented this event.
Prelude (Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park)
The sentinel stone in traditional Japanese Garden culture is used to symbolize warriors, dieties, and fictional heroes, they are found at the entrance gate, at important focal points, and wherever their presence will enhance the garden experience.
Hoichi Kirisu, founder of Kirisu International, is known throughout the world for Japanese Gardens of wonder and delight. His most current design is unfolding right here at the Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan and it all begins with the placement of that one significant stone…
Beverly Pepper: Palingenisis 1962-2012 (Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park)
Beverly Pepper is an American-born artist whose career has spanned many mediums over several decades. Her works are often site specific and monumental in size. At 90 some years of age, she remains independent of any specific art movement and the work she has accomplished throughout her life has made her a pioneering force for contempory female artists and sculptors.
This video is a documentation of her exhibit at the Frederik Meijer Gardens and was presented to Pepper as a gift when she was honored by the International Sculpture Center in New York with a life-time achievement award in 2013.
Time Lapse Sequence/Helen DeVos Japanese Garden (8Legged Monster)
Hoichi Kirisu of Kirisu International is busy bringing his latest Japanese Garden to life here at the Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan. But this is no ordinary garden…this is 8 acres of wonderment and magic and we’ve been creating a little of our own as we follow it’s unfolding…
Mark di Suvero at Storm King Art Center (Spacetime CC Inc.)
International sculptor, Mark di Suvero rules the Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York with his personal 40 acre plot known as the di Suvero fields.
In the late fall of 2007, commissioned by the artist himself, I took a small crew cross country in a motorhome…braving an early blizzard in the Poconos Mountains to capture the beauty of this artist’s work in one of the country’s most spectacular outdoor sculpture parks.
Mark di Suvero at Liberty Plaza Park (Spacetime CC Inc.)
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Liberty Plaza Park, a spot facing Ground Zero at the NW corner, was used as an emergency staging area for FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Association) and the DDC (New York City Dept of Design & Construction) for the World Trade Center recovery effort.
Today the renovation of that spot into an urban oasis of sorts, symbolizes the rebirth of Lower Manhattan and New York City since that tragic day.
Famous New York philanthropist and President Emeritus of the Museum of Modern Art, Agnes (Aggie) Gund, supported the renovation with her purchase and donation of Mark di Suvero’s famous 70’ sculpture, Joi de Vivre.
The piece was delivered from its place at the Storm King Art Center and installed on a Friday night in November of 2006. I was hired by Mark himself to document the installation. The process began at sunset and was completed by sunrise the next day. For cameraman, Cal Vruggink and I, it was our only visit to Ground Zero and one neither of us will ever forget.
Special note: Joi de Vivre can also be seen in the Dog and Pony video on di Suvero at Storm King produced one year before the sculpture was moved to NYC.
