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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suite beside waterfall - elkader iowa

Our longest drive was by far the first Tuesday, from north central Missouri to the northeast corner of Iowa. The computer projected six hour drive was really nine hours on the road. It was after dusk when we passed by Geisert's salmon-colored storefront on Main Street. Standing alone, looking like he was enjoying the night air before retiring, his glasses absent from his face, we glided silently passed his studio.

Owner Mary Klint met us at the entrance of her stone mill retreat, the Riverside Cooperage. Family friend and illustrator Arthur Geisert had recommended the place, and Klint showed us the front room of the Doctor Suite, bedroom, and bathroom. Outside meshed with the A/C unit you could hear the roar of the Turkey River Falls.

In 2005 Klint converted Dr. Hommel's medical office into a unique retreat. During renovation she discovered the original stone walls of the Cooperage Mill. In our suite she had tastefully kept medicine cabinets, a display of aluminum dental impression trays, a dental chair, and other fixtures to remember its earlier history. With my history of going to the orthodonist when I was young, I found the decorative touches to be amusing.

I tiptoed out Wednesday morning in hopes to find something to paint. The keystone bridge across the Turkey River reminded me of pictures I had seen of the Seine River in Europe. Alas, after looking through foliage on the far side of the river, even getting permission for a view from someone's balcony, I did not paint. It was worth walking on foot, viewing the river, seeing the inside of the courthouse - although I was told the best view was in the winter after the leaves had fallen off the trees. I chatted with a gal on the bridge, whose brothers had remodeled the interior of Geisert's Main Street studio. As the driver for the trip I decided my energy was better saved for driving. Was not the right time to paint. That came later when we were in Omena, Michigan.
        

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in water

"Is there a public pool near here?"

Our host family lived on fifteen acres outside of Omena, Michigan. As Jan and I got around Monday morning, it was Dan who gave us directions to the fitness center in Northport from his computer and not the museum photo below.

It was our way while we drove the whole route. On eight of the ten days, Jan and I did our aerobic workouts IN WATER. When visiting Geisert in Elkader Iowa, we made time to be at the local city pool. In both Rockford Illinois and Muskegon Michigan, before looking for a place to dine we spent an hour unwinding at the indoor motel pool. In Schaumberg outside of Chicago, it was the outdoor motel pool. As we entered Missouri through Hannibal, it was in the green lake water of the Mark Twain State Park. At Northport Michigan, it was the fitness center pool.

Resistance of moving limbs in the water helped keep us limber after hours of sitting in the car. When muscles twist and legs kick, my mind drifts, and gratitude washes over me. For my wife Jan, her aid, her knowledge, her company, her energy for the trip. For the amazing hospitality poured out by Dan and Amanda. Staying at their house, conversation over the evening meal, stories of bicycling, white skunks that ate pesky yellow jacket wasps, having cats, all about Jenks, grumpy red squirrels, our lives and the jobs we keep. Jan finished her fifth set. We noticed how the foam noodles in the pool were unlike those we use back in Carrollton. Completely solid, not hole in the middle running the length of it.

We follow Dan's advice and explored Northport. Seagulls hovered above, tilting a wingtip to glide sideways across the sky. Visiting kids bobbed up and down with the sway of the incoming waves on the beach.

The wind was blustery and the water by the beach choppy.

Jan enjoyed watching high school students assemble small sailboats at the beach near the marina.

The unique experience we shared in Chicago at The Publican restaurant paved the way for us trying new foods in Northport. Double click on images to enlarge.

Skipping breakfast made room for this pulled pork - beef pattie and who-knows-what-else-it-had. The waitress couldn't believe I had room for it all. Yum.

We ate at the Garage, downtown Northport.

 

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leland visit

 

Above, my father, all tanned, was kneeling on the sand of Van's Beach, Leland, Michigan. That photo of him painting his watercolors was taken in June of 1948. Please notice the wooden shanties of Fish Town in the background. Beside my dad in sunglasses was Helen Galoff, a student from East Lansing, who was in Leland for the summer art program offered through Michigan State University. (collection of Sally Chadwick McKenzie, Harbor Springs, Michigan).  Double click on images to enlarge.

My wife Jan and I visited Amanda Holmes and her husband Dan Stewart for three days in Omena, MI as part of our ten day summer vacation. Here are a few things we saw in Leland.

Jan Marxhausen and Amanda Holmes

Dan Stewart and Karl Marxhausen

The south end beach, above, and the wonderous Michigan sky, below.

Above, the jail Dad would have seen, still standing in town. Below, the charcoal sketch he did in his sketchbook.

Above, the fishing nets drying in Fish Town. Below, the sketch my dad made in 1948.

The Old Art building, above. This was where the summer art students between 1939 and 1989 gathered at the end of each day to see each other's hard work.   The day I walked through the front door, a three day painting class with adults was in session. The instructor told me participants worked from their own reference photos they had taken, below video and photo.

Two minute walk through.

Above, this was once the fisherman's house where gals in the art program lodged. Retired art teacher Sally McKenzie of Harbor Springs had identified the location during my research phone call in 2015. She remembered meeting my father when he was passing through Leland. http://karl-marxhausen.blogspot.com/2015/04/out-on-rocks.html.

The Carson family continues its fishing business down in the Fish Town area. Click on http://www.carlsonsfish.com/carlsons/  The whitefish we ate at Dan's house the first night had been freshly caught at Carson's.

Holmes entreated me to visit the Fish Town area. Take time to drink in the surroundings that my father had been taken by. I had brought my paint kit along for this journey. What might I choose to paint? The boardwalk? The boats at dock? The swell of the Carp River beneath the pilings?

This was one watercolor Dad had painted. "Fish Town," watercolor in mat by Reinhold Marxhausen, June 1948 (Marxhausen Estate)

Video view of the Carp River that flows through Fishtown.

I found something near Omena, across the Leelanau Peninsula from Leland. It was on Dan and Amanda's property.

Amanda showed us her office inside the Leelanau Historical Museum. Four minutes. One staffer named Summer made my day over the phone when she recognized my last name and then said this of my father:

"Your Dad was the plein air artist!" 

Holmes told us over dinner about the diabolical otters that were tearing apart some of the foundations of Fishtown structures. To which I offered installing "titanium mesh," which otter teeth would not penetrate. To my knowledge there is no such material yet on the market.

At her house Holmes showed me the works of others who had been in the summer art program, which have been added to her own collection of art. Double click on images to enlarge.

Beach Scene by unknown student, 18 x 24 inches, 1949. Collection of Amanda Holmes. Signature, next.

Boats of Fish Town by Arthur Hill, Oil, 18 x 24, in frame, 1955, collection of Amanda Holmes. Signature, next.

Above, across the Carp River at the Leelanau Museum we saw ink drawings by Keith Burnham, a local who wanted to record the local fishermen and their livelihood, below.

Four minute walk through Leelanau Museum.

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