Touchstone Center Original Videos

Videos by Geoffrey Jones

Each of these videos, written by Richard Lewis and conceptualized by Geoffrey Jones, is an imaginative rendering of a specific Touchstone Center publication that grew out of the Center’s ongoing arts and education residencies in public school classrooms in New York City.  Well received by both children and teachers, these videos speak of the life of our imaginations.  They stand alone for their artistry as well as being ideal accompaniments to the publications themselves.

Geoffrey Jones is a multimedia director, video artist and composer/musician.  After winning the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award from Occidental College, he worked on the soundstages of Hollywood before returning to New York to specialize in Arts and Arts-in-education videos for many artists and organizations.  His videos have been exhibited in galleries and travelling exhibitions in Chile, Spain, Italy, England, Czech Republic, and Japan.  He directs a continuing series of educations videos about art for the Abrons Arts Center Gallery Education Program and also directs their cable TV show, Henry Street Presents.

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The Bird of Imagining

Illustrated by Children from NYC Public Schools

Music by Geoffry Jones

Narrated by Richard Lewis

Based on a poem by Richard Lewis and illustrated by twenty-two luminous cray-pas drawings by children from New York City Public Schools, this unique video explores the nature of the imagination through the flight of a bird evolving into the flight of our human imagining.

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Cave: An Evocation of the Beginnings of Art

Illustrated by Elizabeth Crawford

Music by Marjorie Barab

Narrated by Richard Lewis

Based on Richard Lewis’s theatre piece originally performed at the American Museum on Natural History, CAVE was brought into book form through a series of striking clay sculptural images created by Elizabeth Crawford, sensitively photographed by George Hirose. This video reflects the spirit of the book as it poetically explores how and why humans over thirty thousand years ago, with their profound relationship to the natural world, began to paint on the walls of dark caves, the astonishing images of the animals they hunted and revered.

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In the Spirit of Play

Illustrated by Children from NYC Public Schools

Music by Lou Harrison

Narrated by Richard Lewis

Created as an introduction to The Touchstone Centers In The Spirit of Play exhibition at the Abrons Arts Center of the Henry Street Settlement in 1998, this video presents the questions asked of children participating in this two-year project about the nature of their play and the existence of play within nature and the universe at large. The video shows how these questions were expressed and ultimately answered through the provocative and playful artwork by these NYC school children.

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Each Sky Has Its Words

 Illustrated by Gigi Alveré

Music by Harry Mann

Narrated by Richard Lewis

Originally written for the Touchstone Centers thematic exploration, Realms of Language, this poem is an evocation of the presence of language in the natural world. Illustrated with luminous black and white watercolors, this video can be enjoyed by all who have taken the time to listen and to observe the infinite ways nature speaks to us and to itself.

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A Tree Lives

 Illustrated by Noah Baen

Music by Harry Mann

Narrated by Richard Lewis

A Tree Lives was originally created as a poem and performed with sets painted by Noah Baen for children at the East Village Community School in New York City as a way to explore the unique knowing lodged deep inside a tree. Subsequently published as a book, will illustrations based on Noah Baen’s paintings, this video faithfully recreates the mood and lyricism of the book.

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I Catch My Moment: Art and Writing by Children on the Life of Play

 Designed by Heidi Neilson with photographs by George Hirose

Music by Geoffrey Jones

Narrated by Richard Lewis and Clea Rivera

 

Inspired by the Touchstone Center’s project In the Spirit of Play which took place in a number of public schools New York City Schools and based on the book I Catch My Moment: Art and Writing by Children on the Life of Play complied by Richard Lewis, designed by Heidi Neilson with photographs by George Hirose – this video captures the original writings and art of children as they express the meaning of play – both for themselves and as it exists throughout the universe.

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The Sleep of Waters

 Illustrated by Susan Joy Share

Music by Harry Mann

Narrated by Richard Lewis

This sensitive and unique video is a rendering of a recent performance by Susan Joy Share, along with accompanying music by Harry Mann, given at the Performance Project at the University Settlement based on the poem and book by Richard Lewis, From the Sleep of Waters – illustrated by Susan Joy Share.  Originally performed at the American Museum of Natural History in 1982, From the Sleep of Waters was inspired by the myth of Aphrodite as she emerges from the foam of the sea – and is a evocative collaboration between Richard Lewis – and the riveting hand-crafted artifacts and objects created by Susan Joy Share – as they explore depths of our dreaming and the birthing and mystery that is the sea.