Creator finds ideas through serendipity
Story and Photos
by Paul Chandler
Rcinhold Picpcr Marxhauscn is a
creator, and most of his ideas he just
sort of happens upon, through seren
dipity.
Serendipity is the process of dis
covering something hy accident or
mistake.
The following story is how Rcin
hold animated serendipity for mc
not in these specif ic words, but I hope
he likes the way I retell it.
A man and his son. on a camping
trip were walking through tall grass
looking for an ideal wooded area to
pilch their tent for the night. A.v the
two were wading in the scrub, they
happened upon a covert patch of
cockle burs. Cocklcburs don't have
rattles.
There were thousands of cockle
burs in the ancient patch, and a large
percentage of them were tugging on
and plunging into the shoes, socks,
trousers, shirts and skin of the two
campers. The man was fully annoyed.
While fighting the cocklebur patch,
he allotted each burr a specific adjec
tive. The boy, only slightly inconven
ienced, stood silently still and thought
it amusing to sec his father in this
uninhibited state.
"Satan created cockleburs," ex
claimed the man.
"Isn’t it amazing how well they
slick to things," said the boy.
Abruptly, the fight between man
and cocklebur ended. The two camp
ers, centered in the cocklebur patch,
faced each other in wondering si
lence.
Some time later, after the ideal
wooded campsite had been found,
stories had been exchanged in the
glow of the pine wood-fueled fire and
the two had returned to the city, Vel
cro could be found at the market.
Marxhauscn, a retired art profes
sor, stresses that there is more to
serendipity than discovery by chance.
Serendipity requires “looking at
the world with fresh cyes-a childlike
innoccncc-a truly open mind,” he
said.
‘ The opportunities to discover ami
create arc everywhere if you’re open
and alert to the things around you,”
he said.
Marxhauscn may be the most alert
person I’ve met. He’s 68.
Marxhauscn has been inventing in
a multiple of mediums since 1951,
when he helped establish the art dc
i —
partmcnl at Concordia College in
Seward, Nebraska.
Recently, stainless steel found in
junkyards, on the roadside or wher
ever serendipity rests and waits is the
medium he’s alert to most.
”1 could continue to paint,”
Marxhausen said, ‘‘but I no longer
have a message in it, so I weld stain
less steel to create sound.
‘‘I’m depressed about drugs, so
I’m inventing things that give highs
without drugs-sound vibrations. I’ve
never taken drugs, so I don’t know
what they do. But I can feel the sound
vibrations from my sculptures stimu
late my arms, forearms, brain-my
body.”
Marxhausen plans to spend the
rest of his life inventing therapy.
And the cocklcbur story isn’t the
only talc Marxhausen has to tell. For
his children, others and himself, he
wants to archive his stories on paper
while he still can.
‘‘I enjoy writing, have had some
poetry published and plan on writing
more,” he said.
Marxhausen said he doesn’t al
ways know where he’s going to end
up when he begins to write or picks up
a piece of metal and wire.
‘‘But you don't need to have an
end result in mind. Jlist do it. Just pick
something up, could be anything, and
try it out.”
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Counterclockwise from left:
Marxhausen ignites the welder he uses to make his art.
Behind Marxhausen is the shed he made specifically to house
murals he was commissioned to build for the State Capitol. The
shed, adorned with past creations, is now used as his welding
shop.
Marxhausen listens to the sound vibrations after knocking two
oyster-shaped sound sculptures together.
Plucking the wires welded to a metal helmet sets off airy chime
vibrations that physically stimulate Marxhausen’s senses.
Marxhausen demonstrates his discovery that, with a few minor
changes, teat cups, usually used on automatic milking machines,
serve as ideal creamers.
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