wooden blocks - art geisert

"Just set your luggage there on the sidewalk and come in. No one will disturb it."
 At Geisert's bidding, the laptop computer and clothes and what else were set on the sidewalk and my wife and I followed him into his studio. Arthur Geisert is a story teller. With a deadpan face he leads you on an extended m-e-t-h-o-d-i-c-a-l venture with a great punchline at the end of it. We heard a few of them Tuesday night, Wednesday evening, and Thursday morning over soup at Monica's across the street from him.

Our belongings were retrieved by us from where we had left them. Just as raindrops were beginning to fall.  ?! Who leaves their possessions in plain view on a downtown sidewalk unattended??? I'm so-o-o-o glad nothing was missing!!

We were treated to Bangers and mashed potatoes at Fennelly's Irish Pub Wednesday. Bangers are a sausage dish.

This man is clever. He loves crossword puzzles. He does much research for his book illustrations. He embraces an old process for each of the twenty-eight books he's done. Etches the final design in r-e-v-e-r-s-e, putting a hardened resist coating over large copper plates and immersing them into acid bathes for lengths of time. See listing http://www.illinoisauthors.org/authors/Arthur_Geisert

Linseed ink is spread over the heated plate. Excess ink is scraped off with cardboard, Buffed shiny with a tarlatan (cheesecloth). Soaked and blotted BFK is carefully laid on the inked plate and cover with various felt blankets. Hands turn a large wheel, moving the plate bed through enormous pressure, forcing ink into the damp paper. Oh, and some time later, after successful proofing and drying, Geisert paints watercolor on top of his design.

In the summer of 1977 I watched him do the steps and then did the soaking and blotting and inking under his direction. That was when G lived in Galena, Illinois. He has lived in Bernard, Iowa and now in Elkader, Iowa. My father was one of his art teachers at Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska. Not surprisingly I saw a photo of my dad on his refrigerator, below.

All these vintage alphabet wooden blocks spill down above the headboard of his bed. He told us it was quite a challenge to pull it off. It reminds me of Christo's orange curtain across the Grand Canyon. The architectural engineering involved. He is that kind of guy. Precise, exact, and deliberate. And funny with a straight face all the time.

Four minutes. Geisert shows the remodeled upstairs.

Two minute view of Turkey River waterfalls from his rear balcony. 
 

Before we departed Thursday after lunch, Geisert passed onto us a bag of black licorice. My favorite snack. 'Twas a good omen. A blessing.Thanks.

We tried to see where his former octogonal hillside studio was when we drove through Galena, Illinois. It was nowhere to be found. He used to have a jillion steps going up that hillside to the house he built. He kept woodpiles or stations to pick up wood scraps for his wood stove. My favorite recipe from him was tamale pie. With cornmeal, stewed tomatoes, creamed corn, hamburger, and egg, and cooked on a wood-fired stove. See his current woodpile, above. He chose the exterior colors for his storefront, below. Someone else did the painting. He is seventy-three years old.

 

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proof

Proof.

Classes at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln introduced me to Lithography and Intaglio (or Etching). Lithography is drawn on treated Bavarian limestone. Heavy heavy expensive limestone. The kind you work with in school with provided for school equipment. Not the kind of tools I would have in my bachelor apartment after graduation. Ha.

In etching class I learned how to combine vine ash and linseed oil to make a cool black. Bone ash and linseed oil makes a warm black. And you smoosh it together with a metal spatula on a hard smooth surface.

In Intaglio (or Etching) a metal zinc plate is coated with a melted rosin that resists acid and left to cool. Then one draws a design by scratching through the coating. The plate is put into an acid bath tray for a specific amount of time. The acid eats lines into the metal. Light lines if you take the plate out after a short time. Dark lines if you leave the plate in longer. Much trial and error. Learning by doing. And you rinse acid off with water in the sink. So when you click on the above image, you will notice the lines are irregular and bumpy. Some people like their etchings to have a gritty texture. Others are super careful and attentive and can achieve some incredible line work.

For awhile I admired the rich darks that Rembrandt was able to get with his etchings. The etching I did above is called Night Road And Lights.
The impression is 5 by 7 inches on BFK intaglio paper.

When a design has many lines in it you can do what Rembrandt did. With a cardboard scrap you pull a thin coat of ink across the prepared metal plate. Then you scuff the plate with a stiff mesh fabric called a tarlatan. You end up with ink in the etched grooves of the plate. Usually the un-etched smooth portions of the plate are buffed to a shine. But, because many lines will hold much more ink, one can choose where to scuff and where to let heavier amounts of ink remain on the plate. It is that dirtiness of the ink that will create the awesome velvety atmosphere that Rembrandt did. In Night Roads And Lights I wanted the night sky to be a dark as possible. You can only see the road where the headlights illumine and barely see the dim lights ahead. That, my friend, was done on purpose!!

Experimentation. If your ideas aren't working out do something desperate and hope. I did a deep etch and changed the edge of the rectangle. I like abstract and grit and there is room in the world of intaglio for such results.

You will notice that my steps above resemble the style of Arthur Geisert. In the summer of 1977 I moved to Galena, Illinois to work for Geisert. I inked and pulled proofs for him in his hillside studio, that required me to climb up up up his many many wooden steps. 

 

Geisert is an artist who includes lots of detail and humor. The caption reads: "Arthur amuses himself, building steps in the backyard." I pulled eight proofs of "Steps." It measured 5 by 7 inches. Thanks to David Lange for sharing the one he has below, as I have no photos of my early work.

Ga-chun-gah!!

In keeping with whimsy while in Galena I did an etching called "Compress." It measured 6 by 9 inches.

Circa 1977. Arthur Geisert did a four-plate hand-colored etching called "Noah's Ark." His images are full of detail and humor. Three minute video. This work is in the Reinhold Marxhausen collection at Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska. Geisert was an alumni, class of 1963, a friend of my father, and a skilled printmaker.

Summer spilled in to the fall of 1977. See more of that by clicking on
http://karl-marxhausen.blogspot.com/2015/02/chicago-art-institute.html

I chose to stay out of college one semester and worked in Galena until Christmas. I found out I was required to finish my schooling at UNL, as my parents were paying for the education they wanted me to have. I returned to Nebraska and stayed with my parents at the Columbia Avenue house. In the spring of 1978 I took a semester of classes across the street at Concordia Teachers College. And in the fall of 1978 I returned to the UNL to complete my Bachelor in Fine Arts degree.


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Thanks to David Lange (Illinois) for his photos of my etchings in his private print collection. More on Lange http://cee.illinois.edu/faculty/davidlangehttp://cee.illinois.edu/faculty/davidlange

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in on it

"The backyard show in Long Beach was Art's idea, I'm sure."      Richard Wiegman, Portland,Oregon

(Above, left to right: Gerry Brommer, Arthur Geisert, Dick Wiegman, Reinhold Marxhausen) Double click on images to see more details.

In 2014 I asked Geisert about the backyard exhibit. He told me all the metal and ceramic works were done by Marxhausen. Watercolors were by Brommer. Oil paintings were by Wiegman and Geisert. The seated woman and boy subjects were by Geisert. He said he had painted a copy of Van Gogh’s “Potato Eaters.”

I asked Geisert who Gerald Brommer was.

"He was an art teacher at the Lutheran High School. Dick Wiegman and myself attended that school. Dick was a year ahead of me. We both went to Concordia in Seward."  Sept 29, 2014 

 

Brommer was instrumental for sending talented high school graduates, like Wiegman and Geisert, on to Concordia Teachers College in Seward, Nebraska, now known as Concordia University.

There was a story I had heard growing up about bicycling to Nebraska.

Geisert answered:
"In 1959 John Anderson and myself bicycled from California out to Seward. We camped out and slept along the road. It took us 6 weeks to get to Seward. Sometime later, Dick and I bicycled back to California. That took 5 weeks to get back. Road construction had gravel piles

which were easier to scoop out nest to sleep in, rather than on the hard ground. Back then, we’d biked 80 miles a day. There were two mountain ranges. We rode up to the top of a pass and spent the night. It was COLD. Next day we coasted 10 or 12 miles down the other side."   Sept.29, 2014  

 Both Geisert and Wiegman were taking art classes at Seward prior to and after this photo. During Christmas break of 1961 Geisert hatched the idea of having an impromtu art show in his parents backyard. His parents lived in Lakewood, CA. Both Wiegman and Geisert had returned home over the break and brought current art projects with them for that one day exhibit. Reinhold Marxhausen with his wife Dorris, and sons Karl and Paul were living in Oakland, CA. Marxhausen had just completed the fall term of graduate classes at Mills College. He was working toward his Master in Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in sculpture. Reinhold, also known as "Marxie," hand-lettered the sign for the exhibit on his car (see top photo).

According to Gerry Brommer, the college art professor had spoken to an conference of Southern California Lutheran school teachers in 1960, one year before he moved his family to Oakland and his sabbatical graduate classes began (click above). 

"I believe he was the keynote speaker. He might have spoken on creativity. He may have showed slides of a farm where an art event was held. I remember he stayed at our house. He came out a day earlier. He and I drove down to the Los Angeles Harbor and spent time painting where the big ships and fishing boats are. I painted too. He ended up with my paintings and I with his. My wife tells me the painting has the date 1960 on it." Jan. 19, 2015

Los Angeles Harbor by Reinhold Marxhausen

Brommer on Marxie:

"He was a strong influence, I’m sure. Maybe more so, since you were in his family. I have a couple things he made for me. Some plaques he designed just for me, made of metal and ceramics. He was prolific. January 19, 2015

 

Gerald F. Brommer LINK  Richard Wiegman LINK  Arthur Geisert LINK   Reinhold P. Marxhausen LINK

(quotes from phone interviews with Karl Marxhausen. Richard Wiegman - October 22, 2014; Gerald Brommer - January 19, 2015; Arthur Geisert - September 29, 2014; photos courtesy of Marxhausen Estate LTD, Seward, Nebraska)