crumbling plastic torn down - studio

On November 2016 while I was assembling collage materials in my studio, I noticed much of the clear plastic dangling from the ceiling, all ratty-looking. I would look into tearing it down at some future point.

History:  The shed was built by me after the closing of the Christian coffeehouse late in 1999. Some will remember the weekend rock bands and the 16 month run at That Phat Phish. Board member Curtis Fisher had built the stage. The stage was released into my care when the non-profit closed its doors. It was put on blocks and became the floor of my studio.

Hard rock Empire band members on Phat Phish flatbed, courthouse lawn, during summer of 1999, Carrollton, Missouri. Double click to enlarge.

Above, student Danielle Sullivan gets autograph from keyboardist of reggae band Temple Yard on Phat Phish stage, 1998.

Fatal Subconscious, punk band members from Kansas City, pose for photo, 1998
The stage came apart in two sections. These were rearranged, put on blocks and became the floor of my studio.

Plywood walls went up. Southern light plexiglas windows. A slanted corrugated tin roof with skylight.

I built-in overlapping flanges around the door that helped shut out the cold.

The entire inside walls and floor were covered with clear plastic.

A heated oil space heater hooked up from the house provided enough heat in the winter months.

Later on I experimented with large pieces of the solid pink insulation up against the corrugated tin roof. Cut to fit around the edges and rafters.

In 2000 when I began doing landscapes in acrylic I used the shed as a studio plenty. As I gained confidence over the years, I have painted and created outdoors as well.

The shed came in handy in January of 2016 when I needed an enclosed space to vanish my paintings. (Double click to enlarge images)

Three minutes.

In 2007 there was a period when I did art inside the house which had its own heat. First in the blue room (above) and another time the kitchenette area (below). The woodcut and printmaking was in the house.

You know, an art space is where ever you can find one. Push stuff aside and make a spot to do it.

That said, the shed space has also been used to store the lawn mower and pool equipment.

In December 2016 I took action and took down shelves and metal brackets. The dust mask was a must as I pulled off all the clear plastic. It crumbled in my hands. The way it disintegrates after a time. See before and after.

The solid insulation panels above were not staying up. Coming loose, falling down. I put down some ideas on paper. There would be more to do.

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.