rendezvous with karl

PHOTOS BELOW. Chillicothe Business College mural, painted from a scissors-lift three stores up. The full space was 100 foot wide. Ten foot illustrations was course work offered at that turn-of-the-century school.

--- The Karl from 2014 is melding with the Karl from 1998 and the Karl from 1977. What a rendezvous. the VAST INTENSITY joy undivided is stitching my memories into one person. that PHAT PHISH. beautiful FIRE. my king and lord jesus. from a 1996 journal entry entreats me to: DELIGHT IN HIM, speak of him, SING TO HIM, let my tears be on display, be a model of tenderness, be open, be gentle. 

 --- I remember what Danielle Sullivan told me about the red plastic tear drop, with the bright glitter outline, in the middle of blue felt jesus hands. she said: "THAT US. WE ARE IN THE WOUNDS OF JESUS. THAT IS WHERE HE HEALS US." that nine year old observation, so fresh and real. 

Danielle gets autograph BELOW from reggae band Temple Yard, when they performed in 1999 at That Phat Phish Coffeehouse, 14 North Main, Carrollton, Missouri. Off the CD they handed out. Lion of Judah, and Tell Me, and Freedom In Captivity,  samples, listen.

 --- The night I woke up at two o'clock in the morning to record on paper what he pointed out to me from that night's movie at the Uptown Theater in Carrollton. As Bud of Pleasantville told the students in the soda shop about his experiences "outside Pleasantville," the blank book pages came to life. How the roads are not a circle path, but they go on and on. He declared an experience greater-than-you-have-ever-known with jesus and the wonderful drenching rain of the spirit and the beauty of jesus ( full text at http://karl.marxhausen.net/pleasantville.html ) 

Carrollton sculptor Robert Willis ABOVE mounts his welded shovel bird at 1999 Beautiful Fire exhibit, 5 East Benton Street, Carrollton. That exhibit was sponsored by That Phat Phish coffeehouse, for a one-day event.

 --- it was my chat with wayne, something my youth group wrote on paper, the VAST INTENSITY JOY UNDIVIDED crashing mashing melding smoothing splashing into my mind and heart and being. he is ALL THAT..........and so much MORE. He stirs my senses in my 58 years old self. He embraces this porcupine, I am His and He is mine. 

PHOTO BELOW, a piano break of mine, in gymnasium. One stop of many during my father's art workshop tour 1970 - 1971, around the United States when I was age 16.

 PHOTO BELOW. at age 20, on my knees in the Commons room of Centennial College, surrounded by Jon Swift (upper left), Dan Swinarski (holding lamp), Tim Roper (center), Lynn Williams (upper right). my advertised happening event, tearing paper strips from discarded Lincoln phone books, tossing them up in the air, watching them flutter poetic to the floor. 1975 at the University Nebraska in Lincoln.

---- My piano self in 1977, sitting on the wooden bench of the Neihardt snack bar, next to Jon Swift, harmonizing about my neighbor Bob Popek in a warm and silly chorus. Conversing with the grown up version of Jeffrey Binder, the flute person who now is a neurologist in Wisconsin doing brain research. That friendship stretched through time and space into May of 2014. oh my lord, my phat phish, my delight, my king. you ARE so good.

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