EARTH DAY
APRIL 22, 2006
QUIXOTE WINERY TOASTS FRIENDS OF THE EARTH
LESSONS FROM AN ARTIST-ECOLOGIST YOU ARE A GUEST ON EARTH. BEHAVE.
You are a guest on earth.
From the first meeting with Friedensreich Hundertwasser in Vienna,
Austria to his last visit (1928-2000) here at Stags Leap Ranch, he
had much to teach and we had lessons to learn. He gave us a winery
that, from its tree-planted sod roof to its undulating walls and
uneven floor, reminds us each day how to regain our equilibrium.
Thinking of him on Earth Day, we recall a few of his teachings:
“The nature of the plant world is always constructive. It
is always the teacher in the creative as well as the ecological sense.”
“Let plants grow in the cracks of the walls. Allow buildings
to change and mutate as you’d allow a child to grow.”
He taught us that we are of this earth and that the meaning of, “Adam” is
soil as is the Spanish, “hombre.” Hundertwasser worked
to merge buildings with the surrounding terrain as he created a stairway
from the garden to our rooftop.
Discussing his painting, he asserted that the egoistic thing about
perspective is that what is nearer is more important and bigger and
what is farther away is seemingly less important.
A Petite Syrah toast to our friend Hundertwasser and the magical way
he built us into the earth.
Quixote Winemaker Mario Monticelli surrounded
by the Hundertwasser
design that merges with the earth.
Beginning February 2007 we will welcome visitors by appointment.
Carl Doumani
Quixote Winery
www.QuixoteWinery.com 
[Posted: 4/11/2006]
