joy spills

        a lesson is being built for my youth wednesday night. in the days leading up to it, my mind feels like it has been hidden in his cloak. keeping my thoughts still, staying within the boundaries. (double click to see details enlarged)

my prayer is this:

 

 

     as a grownup i struggled with bitterness issues, personal choices to hang on to karl grudges. And then god came in and brought release to personal pain...in tears and healing, and with it, his peace and new joy. this tune came to me in 1991 with new impressions laid out top of my being. he restores my insecurities, my pain, my bitterness. he forgives when i ask for his help. and his tears and joy are worth all the counselling and prayers. (beloved video below)

 

    

so, my doodles embellish the hand-lettered song sheets that the youth and I sing from.
 

 

 new calluses are forming on fingers that haven't held metal guitar strings for a while
 



 

a tune that comes to me when I am loading the suburban with lunch containers from the high school or when I am driving home after work (video next)

 

when I first scoped out the youth room one sunday morning

two songs came to mind: "beauty for ashes" & "joy is a flag."

these premonitions and impressions have me all excited.

i am seeing living water flow from students as they open themselves
and share the impressions that come.

The portions I journal for myself remind me
that
this is really
happening.

a grownup can be broken open
and amazed each time 
this precious entity presses in.

 

 

Two minute medley. Beauty for ashes (Bob Manzano, 1979)

Joy is a flag flown high from the castle of my heart (Author unknown)

 

this zone blesses my day

free spirit

In the new year 2012, I have been enjoying music by the tUnE-yArDs.

Watch video of You Yes You, four minutes (above).
More works by Merill Garbus, click HERE
More about her, click HERE
http://www.tune-yards.com/
Watching her sing on stage reminds me of my second year in college.

Being an art student I put together and pulled off a few "free spirited events."
The year was 1975. I was enrolled in the Centennial Educational Program, while at the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln.

One Saturday morning I staged an impromtu happening in the Nebraska Student Union lounge. My roommate Bob Winkler (above) and I stacked blocks of scrap wood and invited others to do the same.
This was what an art student with lots of zeal did when he was out on his own. The memories do not stop there.

Our dorm room on the second floor of Love Hall became an art project itself. From the paper strips that hung from the ceiling (right) to the flattened refrigerator cardboard boxes

boxes I dragged from off-campus and lined our walls (left). To draw and build on, of course. Obviously influenced from the "basement wall" I grew up with in my parents' house. (See a clip of their wall, click HERE.)

Friday nights when students were out visiting their friends on our floor, Bob and I talked fellow students to enter our room to see the hung ceiling and watch their response to it. That same year 1975, I had found a way to pull the paint layer out from our room wall. Very carefully I stuffed portions with small piece of tissue and resealed it (left and below).

Here is another memory about Centennial. That same year I organized, scripted and filmed a 40 minute super-8 movie as an independent study project at Centennial. The story followed a traveling salesman as he went from room-to-room with his suitcase. Each room presented a different odd scene. He met a scuba diver, a troupe of human flowers, a foosball champion, and many others. Fellow students in Centennial were asked for their ideas and many acted in the film. All the scenes were shot within Centennial. My advisor gave me full credit for it.

Centennial was in the (north) Love Hall end of the John G. Neihardt Residential Center. I remember setting up a number of "peoples concerts" to showcase the musical talent from our dorm and the Neihardt complex. I borrowed sound equipment from the Nebraska Union. There was a concert held in the Neihardt snackbar in the basement of our dorm, and one in the lounge of Raymond Hall, because it had a grand piano there. There was a concert also in the South Crib Room of the Nebraska Student Union. Here is a list of some of that talent. (I have added current available links where I could find them.) Jon Swift on guitar, Tim Roper 1  and 2 on violin, Jeff Binder 1   and 2,  Ray Walden on piano, Jim Williams on piano, Rick Nelson on guitar, Tim Booth on piano, Vicky Thomson on piano, Dave Mosley on piano, Steve Petersen on guitar, Pat Collins on guitar, Brian Nyquist vocals, Mark Willy on piano, Bob Popek, Jeff Taebel 1  and 2  on guitar and 3, Paul Marxhausen 1  and 2  on guitar, myself on piano, and others.














One more memory.
(below) That's me kneeling on pages torn from












a discarded phone book. (In photo, Jon Swift is seated second from left, and Tim Roper seated just above my kneeling figure) In the darkened space Dan Swinarski (above, left) cast light on the dancing strips of paper for all to see.
With a free spirit and in total silence, the community watched and enjoyed the spontaneity of the event.

Mylar ribbons shine in the window in 1998.

Young intensity pours out the door onto the side walk.

 14 North Main hops with reggae music and dreadlocks.

The band from Tennessee, Temple Yard, takes 

a music break at That Phat Phish coffeehouse 

and signs willing palms and arms.

 

It is a warm summer night 

on the Carrollton downtown courthouse lawn.

Teenage cars circle the square.

The next alternative band to take the 

flatbed stage is Empire from Kansas City,

courtesy of That Phat Phish coffeehouse in 1998.

 

In this season of art, our coffeehouse staff  

rides a wave of excitement.

This works.

Inside there is popcorn and hot chocolate,

hanging out and being there. 

 

 

It is another Saturday night at the Phish....Kevin and his young friends ask me about the pictures made out of brightly-colored flattened cans, chunks of asphalt, a butterfly wing, painted shopping sack strips, a dirty knit glove, shiny Dorito bag liners, and silver glitter. 

 

 

I tell the kids to look at the collages 

and tell me what might be represented.

The answers they give bring me wonder and joy.

Blonde mop top Kevin 

stares for a minute

at a dirty glove 

surrounded

by dark dingy shapes 

at the bottom of the piece, 

and then at the orange orb above

floating in a sky of silver.

 "It is someone reaching up to the Lord," he says.

His sister Danielle says something about 
two blue hand shapes
with a teardrop of bright red 
on each palm
 outlined with silver glitter,
set against a purple background:

"They are the hands of Jesus."
She notes the telltale spots of red which represent the blood scars.

 

 Danielle doesn't miss a thing. 
When asked what the glitter might be 
she says plainly:
 "That's us!! 
We are in the wounds of Jesus. 
That is where he heals us."


Beautiful Fire by Karl Marxhausen, potato chip liners, plastic cup, ice bag remains, wristbands, and silver paint on panel, 17 by 11 inches, 1998.

In Roman times, when Christianity went underground, the drawn dirt outline of a fish indicated one was a follower of the risen rabbi from Nazareth, the Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus. It is 2011, and in the United States, the land of many open faiths, I say, Jesus is so P-H-A-T. He is Pretty Hot And Tempting. The Lover of my soul. He is beautiful fire. My joy, my savior, my peace, my defender, my strength, my deliverer, my provision, my rest, my rescue, my choice, the MORE, the YES, the LIGHT, the Smart Embrace.

Collage #4 by Karl Marxhausen, 17 by 11 inches, plastic, foil, knitted glove, squashed soda cans, felt, oil and acrylic paint on panel, 1998.

Elsewhere art exhibit, All Souls Gallery, 4501 Walnut, Kansas City, MO. November 6th to December 2nd, 2011