Most houses or schools have a blank wall in a hallway or basement that attracts fingerprints and is hard to keep clean anyway. Every house needs a wall that can be worked on. Ever since we had children, we have had a wall for them in the basement. The wall is 8 feet by 10 feet long where paintings, scribbles, drawings, birthday wishes, cartoons, doodles, are sandwiched between layers of papier mache and coats of paint. When the wall becomes saturated with images and words, a fresh coat of paint or paper made everything new again for new words and feelings...A home or school without a wall to work on is depriving its inhabitants of a privilege that even primitive man had when he drew pictographs on the walls of caves.
Last Saturday, I had an opportunity to meet Reinhold's son, Karl Marxhausen. We looked at Reinhold's mural in the campus center and talked about the work on the blog. I also had a chance to watch Karl do some filming. This is the wall in the home where Marxhausen raised his kids. Karl also filmed the mural in Jones bank and Janzow campus center. What I like about Karl's films is that they show details a regular photograph can't. Even if you got the opportunity to look at one of these works up close (which I'd encourage you to try if you get the chance) you might not notice some of the small details Karl focuses on in his videos.
While browsing the internet, I discovered two other blogs with posts about Marxhausen. One seems to be a blog analyzing sound, and contained a quote and photos of Marxy I had not seen before.
Once I found a stone that was brown, irregular and very smooth. It was heavy, and looked a bit melted. I remember showing it to a wise, old, bearded rock-hound pastor from Morristown, Minnesota. Reverend Zimmerman's house and life were filled to overflowing with interesting stuff he had collected in his lifetime. When he saw my brown stone, his bushy eyebrows twitched, He looked at me and said 'Son, this is a meteorite - a star' That stone became special to me and I carried it around to surprise all my friends. I was the boy with stardust in his pockets.
The other blog I stumbled across is about Seward Nebraska. Marxhausen left such an imprint on the community, it's not surprising to see his work discussed here.
According to the author, Mike Sylwester, these photos were taken on July 4, 1975, and originally had a caption: "Marxhausen Seward Fourth of July Parade float. Old St. John Lutheran Church in the background." Sylwester explains that the second picture "shows the front of the float being held by Karl Marxhausen (in the foreground) and Reinhold Marxhausen (in the background). The back of the float was held by Paul and Dorris Marxhausen (son and mother) and some friends, but they are not seen in these pictures."
He also quoted Reinhold Marxhausen's son, Karl, who discussed how the float was constructed:
Dad used hula hoops for the four corners. With a walker in each hoop. He created a fish line grid, to which inflated ballons were secured. The rectangular float could be elevated by the front and back walkers moving to the middle, creating a 20 high arch.
This is the beginning of a new project. Maybe you knew Reinhold Marxhausen; maybe you are a family friend or you were a student of his. You've got a favorite memory about him, and a story to tell. Or it could be that you just came upon this site searching through the myriad blogs in cyberspace. In either case, look around. Find out about this man. You certainly won't leave how you came.
Our plans for this site are to 1) create a space where information is shared about projects that he has done and 2) to make it interactive; we want you to tell us what you remember about Marxy.
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