Lint Pieces

Here is one of Amber Konz's posts from the early days of the blog. I have pictures of Marxy's other works with lint and will be posting them soon.

Lint

"Night"

12.75" x 19"

16" x 19"

"Destruction"

18" x 11"

A selection of Marxy's Lint pieces;
art which was created from the lint from the dryer.

- Amber Konz

Notes on the Paintings

These paintings, watercolors, and other works were scanned or photographed by the inestimable Amber Konz. I'm uploading the photographs as well as any information on the works' titles, sizes, or years created. Konz got this information from the Marxhausen Gallery located on CUNE campus.

Comments on Amber's post

This comment was posted on Amber's post on the original blog site:

This was an amazing day. It was my privilege to communicate God's love to His precious children. I have many stories to share after visiting with these people, but I have to share about my meeting Marxhausen for the first time, in particular.

I thought it would be a neat idea to look at a book about Medieval Art with the residences, so I pulled one off the shelf that had a nice velvety-feel to it. There was a griffin stamped onto the cover, and it had a smooth texture in comparison. I passed the book around to those sitting at the table with me and let them feel the book cover and asked them if they knew what the figure stamped onto the cover was.

The book made its way to Marx. I asked him if he knew what the figure was and he gave a quick nod and a beat on his breast. He knew what it was. I could tell he was frustrated that he couldn't communicate that verbally.

I told him it was a book about art. His eyes lit up. I smiled warmly as I saw those quivering hands flip through every page. Those tired eyes darted in every direction on the pages, soaking in every detail and insight too profound to express in what the Lord has deemed right to take away from him.

Placing his hand over the griffin, he returned the book to me in a way that expressed deep gratitude and love. I can't fully explain how he did so, but I knew that this dear old man was moved in a powerful way.

It was only after this that one of my fellow writers informed me as to who this man was. I was blown away. Marx continues to fulfill his role as teacher, but in the gentlest, most profound ways. I was blessed, and I hope this story blesses you as well.

February 16, 2010 | Austin Albers

Visiting Ridgewood

This past Saturday, the writer's group on campus here visited Ridgewood retirement center and delivered handmade Valentine's cards to all of the residents with a bible verse written on the inside about Jesus' love.

I didn't even have to look for Marxy! He was right there. He nodded that I could take his picture. I showed him what it looked like after I had taken it (oh the marvels of digital cameras), he looked right at me and nodded his approval :)

Marxy has Alzheimer's.

Being there with my camera, it made me think of the video Marx had made when he found out he had this disease. He did different workshops with residents at nursing homes and the one in the video he took photographs of the people and then also did a drawing of the photographs and hung them all up on a wall, like a gallery. The exercise was to help raise their self-esteem again and show them their beauty--many of the elderly had a negative opinion of themselves. I'll see what I can do to get that up here...

Although I did not go there with that same intent (we were delivering Valentine's! And it was fun!), I did take a few pictures.

They were so delighted to have us college students go and visit!

Here, they were creating rain-sticks out of toilet paper rolls and tin foil:

The woman standing is Jan, an assistant, and she's so good with them!

Giving Valentine Cards:

This lovely lady loved to sing. We told her she had a pretty voice, and this was the surprised look she gave us:

Austin, explaining the verse about Jesus:

This little lady was sweet--she asked for a copy of her picture.

-Amber Dawn

Pickety Wickety Clickity Clack

A picket fence does not have to look even. It can be uneven just as well. When it is uneven, the sound will be more interesting when the neighborhood boy comes by with his stick to drag along the staves.

Long sticks make low notes. Short sticks make high notes.

Cut the sticks and tune them. Arrange them so a recognizable tune can be played.

Let the boy and the neighborhood discover that the fence has a tune.

Let the Neighborhood discover why the fence is so uneven.

Change the tune each year.

Make a wooden fence in a circle. Tune the interchangeable sticks so you can play a round. Three children running around and clacking the fence at the same speed can play the round.

An essay written by Marx.

Marxy and his Unicycle

Dave Kohl had mentioned in the very first comment of the very first blog on this site about some photographs he had taken of Marxy, and I found them in a stack of photographs. I think they show Marxy very well.

- Amber Konz

Cast your nets into the deep

The 1972 sabatical trip
of the USA covered 33,000 miles
included every state
wife and 2 sons in a Winnebago motor home.

Thousands of people as audience and
workshop participants. A stunning experience!
Now it is ending.
Last day of trip.
Heading for home.
What to do to make it special.

The map showed Pibel Lake
near Burwell on the way.
We’ll stop there.

Dorris picked some flowers in the road ditch
the day was quiet and beautiful
and the pond was small, weedy, dirty
with a sandy beach.

Karl made a boat out of dried weeds to float
and Paul dangled a line with a bare fish hook
in the water
To play
No pole
Peace.

I felt grateful for Divine guidance
and was filled with energy and
a shout.

How does one say thank you?

I grabbed the reel with the line
and the bare metal hook
From the hands of Paul.
I pulled back my right arm.
and flung out the bare hook
with all the praise, energy
and thanksgiving I could muster.

What a feeling of release!

The instant the hook hit the water
a large fish grabbed it.
I had a fish,
and a possible heart attack.

With yelling and shouting
and pulling on the line
the fish was brought to the shore.
It measured from the tip of
my middle finger to the top
of my shoulder.
Thirty inches!
of Northern Pike.
No pole, no license
no intention.

Can there be success without intention?

A poem written by Marx.

- Amber Konz

Link, Shuelke and Weller!

I'm a student at Concordia and I work in the Marxhausen gallery. I ran across these images of Marxhausen's and realized for the first time that the buildings here on campus are named after actual people.

- Amber Konz

Studio visit

Our class was fortunate to be able to go over to Marx's studio a few days ago and play with some of his sound sculptures and his flurries.

If you want to see more pictures of the sound sculptures, check out this link

Sound Sculptures (there are some pictures of his Stardust on this page).

Last but certainly not least, here is a picture of the man himself:

and this is what he has to say:

It was a boring Saturday
at the Mills College
sculpture studio
in California.
No Plans for the day.
I found a door knob on the table
and welded some wires on one end
just for the fun of it.
I place a knob to my ear
and strummed the wire
on the opposite end

WOW

I got another door knob
welded some wire on it also
and connected the two door knobs
with a metal wire which went over
my head so the knobs
were against my ear.

I invented a manual Walkman.

Found in the Marxhausen gallery--poem used in one of his shows.

- Amber Konz

These comments were posted on the original blog site:Fantastic pictures. The sound sculptures are so awesome, I wish I had some of my own to play around with, and the flurries are just as entertaining. It's good to see the blog up and moving along, and it's looking fantastic. And now to bookmark it.

October 21, 2009 | Steven Odom

I saw this post on Gizmodo and immediately thought of Marxhausen http://gizmodo.com/5435603/a-worse-slinky

Thank you for the Flurry picture; I guess my memory is accurate.

December 28, 2009 | Eliot

Reinhold Peiper Marxhausen

This is the first post of many! That being so, here is what Marxy has to say about his name:

"Words are information, not enlightenment.
We can't believe in words but language. The world needs to have labels on its objects, otherwise we cannot deal with it.

People have names, some even numbers, but the names we have have nothing to do with us as a person. Our nicknames may say more about us as a person. When our parents first looked at us at birth, no one said, 'He looks like a Paul or a Mary'. The name in many cases was arbitrary. In some cases we became our name.

I did not like my name as a child mostly because I never met anyone who had a name quite like it. Even today, my ears perk up when I hear the name Reinhold. Reinhold Pieper Marxhausen is a name almost too long to bear.

Seldom did I identify what the 'P' stood for in my middle name. If I was really pushed, I would say it was Peter.

Reinhold Pieper was a professor my father had at the seminary and I inherited a bronze plaque with his image.

At the age of 25 while attending Valpo University, my roommates discovered my full name and proceeded to laugh alot and make fun of it. They called me 'Peeps'. Of course it was embarrassing at first--then it became interesting. I had an interesting name. No one had a name like Reinhold Pieper Marxhausen. It was all mine. Maybe someday I would be able to live up to it and be as interesting as my name. I like it. I proudly sign the whole name whenever I can."

-Found written on a piece of paper in a stack of notes in the archive.

Pictures of his work to come soon!

- Amber Konz