movie brings back marker memories

My brother had some old Super 8 films transferred to video. He compressed them on a CD for me. Some were action stories with live actors. Some were stop action animations that were shot on the basement floor an few frames at a time. While watching the animations, I REMEMBERED my LOVE for magic markers.

When I was in junior high and later as a high school freshman I loved to color. Double click on photos to enlarge.

Sixth grade pencil on notebook paper at st.john's lutheran school, seward, nebraska

Full page marker on 11" x 8" cardstock 1969

As a freshman I took index cards and made designs for the birthday of classmates at concordia secondary laboratory school, Seward, Nebraska. The background of the above card gives you an idea of the patterns I used.

So, one thing led to another and this week I have been decorating a dozen manila folders at my day job in Chillicothe. There was cutting of construction paper, glue, and permanent colored markers.

 

One student asked to see a design I was working on. He told me the folder colors needed to be taped up in the room for everyone to see.
That gave me an idea, and I made a poster to encourage the class, below. Double click for closer details.

Then, I made posters to decorate the youth room in Carrollton, below.

 

Contagious. Is it art?
It is what I am doing and it is lots of fun and making new great memories as well.
Last, I remember what Jean Howard of Prairie Village told me about Picasso. How he was doing many styles when creating. This is ME too. LOVING IT, being it.

Thank you teachers for this assignment.

excursions - august 2 to 28 - lincoln, nebraska

On display now at Burkholder Project, 719 P Street, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Contact Anne Burkholder @ anburkholder@earthlink.net
All paintings were begun outdoors en plein air.
Double click on images to see enlarged.

 

 

Study of Trees and Sky,

acrylic on canvas panel in 10" x 12" frame,

image size 8" x 10"

signature lower left, $ 375

 

 

Pond on Farm #2, Schnares,

acrylic on panel in 11" x 14" frame,

image size 7" x 10"

signature lower right, $ 375

 

  Field and Bluff,

acrylic on 11" x 14" cradled panel,

signature lower right, $ 375

 

 

 

 Tree Trunks, Woodwards,

acrylic on watercolor paper in 11" x14" frame,

image size 9" x 12",

signature lower right, $ 375

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunrise, Near Old 24,

acrylic on watercolor paper in 11" x14" frame,

image size 9" x 12",

signature lower right, $ 375

 

 

 

 

Study Of Clouds,

acrylic on watercolor paper in 11" x14" frame,

image size 9" x 12",

signature lower right, $ 375

 

 

 

 



Change In Sky,

acrylic on watercolor paper in 11" x14" frame,

image size 9" x 12",

signature lower right, $ 375

 

 

 

 

 

Tree Trunks And Meadow, Woodwards,

acrylic on watercolor paper in 11" x14" frame,

image size 9" x 12",

signature lower right, $ 375

 

 

 

 

 

Study Of Tall Tree,

12" x 16", acrylic on panel

signature lower right, $ 375

 

 

 

 

 

Pond On Farm # I,

10" x 10", acrylic on panel,

signature on lower right, $ 375

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cloud and Field,

24" x 18", acrylic on canvas,

signature lower left, $ 375

 

 

 

 

Waterway,

acrylic on 16" x 20" cradled panel,

signature lower left, $ 375

 

 

 

 

Sunrise near Heins Lake,

acrylic on 16" x 20" cradled panel,

signature lower right, $ 375

 

 

 

 

 

Sunrise, 12" x 16",

acrylic on panel,

signature on lower right, $ 375

 

 

 

 

River Ridge, 18" x 24",

acrylic on canvas,

signature lower left, $ 375

 

 Water’s Edge,

24" x 24", acrylic on canvas,

signature lower right, $ 375

                                                                                          

Artist Statement

    Prime considerations were given to “side-to-side” and “down-to-up” elements in each painting, as it was first painted outdoors. These excursions took place outside Carrollton city limits in Missouri during June and July of 2013. Thanks to Miles Conner at Lincoln Lakes, Chris Woodward at Woodward Ranch, Roger and Marilyn Schnare on their farm, and Miles Carter at Moss Creek for granting permission and access to these properties.

Karl Marxhausen

August 2, 2013

A Visual Record website  http://karl.marxhausen.net                                                               email  karl@marxhausen.net                                                                                        

phone  660-329-0242                                                                                     

Carrollton, Missouri, USA 

 

principles - excursion

 

Here are the inside principles I set for myself .... while painting these scenes outdoors. Double click on image to see details enlarged.

• Pushing myself to go wide from left to right.

• Managing information down low and high up.
• Making these elements work in the painting.

 

Had I chosen to draw a crazy a cartoon, or put figures upside down in outer space, or go impulsively abstract I could have done that. I HAVE done that!!

 

THIS time--

• outdoors: in the wind, the sharp morning air, hunkered down, looking out across
• including nature elements, selecting some but not all, ignoring too much detail
• dealing with fleeting clouds, shifting reflections, changing shadows, all the motion
• focusing on light tree trunks in front of dark spaces
• making close tree rows recede
• choosing the colors I want, mixing colors on the spot, happy that acrylic dries fast
• going back to the same location multiple times at the same hour each day to catch a certain kind of lighting
• every brush stroke counts

 

Compare the following two images of the same work, Water's Edge.

 



      To me, the result was monumental. Managing information up high above my head and down to the grass beneath my feet. Using nature elements while working outdoors.

 

     At the end of my painting period (June and July), I made changes based on what I had liked in the other works, such as lightening the horizon, defining the shoreline and duckweed patch. The result was pleasing to my eye.

 

Excursion exhibit -- will be posted upcoming week of August 12 

.

you

it came like a dream,

a hobby project,

from the world of assembling materials.

from the dirt

a yellow chamois cloth was handpicked and cleaned.

its edges became

hand stitched with bright red and orange embroidery thread.

carefully mounted

beneath a clear bottle shell

surrounded by a smooshed sea of grocery bags painted red.

covered with a delicate netting of a potato sack.

now constructed like a womb

enshrining

an imagined thinking entity

bestowed with value

--- pleasing to my eye.

you are precious to me, says this lover.

you are a delight to me.

more than a son or a daughter,

more than blood and bone,

you are a reading conscious intelligence

for me to hold, to love, to kiss, to embrace, to know, to see.

it is i who stop and find you, 

wash and dress you,

and call you mine.

this now, this dance,

this new, this moment, says my lover.

me with you = more.

slide 100 - nephew

Yesterday was our turn to watch grand nephew Tad. Here are the plus moments that I recall.

• Using 'nectors and plastic colored straw units he fitted together a big circle base and up and up four squares tall, like a great big bin, he called it a rocket, stretching his attention span, focus, refocus, redirect, and finish with Jan's remarks. Learning about the words vertical and horizontal. Then, instead of tearing it apart, we left it up in his living room for Granpa to appreciate later after work.

Tall empty box

• The long empty cardboard box in our couch room he figured how to grab the middle with his stubby arms and vertical haul it carefully out and down into our side yard and open it out flat.

• With prompts and exploring he enjoyed being inside the space his size. Later, hands grabbing it hiding himself and running on short legs through the grass, with peals of joy squealing as he ran, hidden shell with bare feet.

• Sword fight with weed stems. Box on end became a castle. Box parts became gold and spaghetti and helicopters and shields. Flat on hill, grab rope swing, run, jump on flat, and slide down hill. He named it "Slide 100."

• Eating most of his burger instead of just French fries. Me making over my little bites of hamburger. His boasting of big bites of hamburger with ketchup.

• Letting our tummies settle. Driving round with windows open, air flowing in. Stop beside a road sign, help Tad interpret number speed limit, round red signs, color of fire hydrant fire plugs, I see a tree, you see a car.

12 foot pool

• Our yard, our little pool, space seems small, until you close your eyes for the water game marco polo, searching, crawling in wet cool water, reaching for ankles slipping beyond reach. Animated wrist and hand mouth saying pretend "can't catch me," flopping, splashing when caught, Tad puts diving plastic colored ring over wrist and pulls Uncle Karl by the wrist around the big pool. The unannounced ceremony of water emptied over my head from toy boat, trickling down my neck, eyes closed, water up to my neck as I sit down on the pool bottom. Taking turns saying the "marco," waiting for the other to reply "polo." Jan standing, sifting floating leaves and crumbs, with her long pool handle net. Not crowded, lost in these long moments, his hugs, and giggles. Later, out and dry, flip flops on, back in car seat, four years old, and headed home to GG and Poppy. Poppy talking about the straws and nectors. Tad making piles of straws and back in box and taken home by Uncle Karl. Straws and nectors a birthday present which he treasures and shares once and a while.

bounce bounce

• Thanks to God for box action, inventing, bouncing on trampoline, Tad conversing, building, reasoning, being in moments, far from everything else, special, real as kin. Knowing there will be other new times as well. Thank you Jesus. Thank you for your care, breaking in tenderly, significant, and the composition of letters, posting, and knowing people through emails, phone calls, youth group, kansas city print society, the life you have given me to be in You, tethered strong, rocking me to sleep, second chances, and the certainty of Your love, Your knowledge of my existence, the little moments glued into my consciousness.