What these people need most... they loathe

Dear Phill,

Your letter reached me last month. And sure enough, all the days past, I thought to write to you. Well you know how the pressure of our daily routine forces us along a strange path. -surely not "our" life's need.

- we have about 8 inches of snow. -mild fresh air.

- the classes are demanding - in that the students do not see much need to improve their brain function. It seems to be, that what these people need most, to exercise that magnificent brain, they loathe. And what an energy expenditure to overcome their apathy. ----- a strange world- since children are born with so much vitality, then we destroy their natural function by means of....... and when all is deformed and in ruin, we try to restore that fresh vigor and urge to live an independent, healthy life.

- How are you enjoying life? your wife and her schooling and assignments? how is she coping with the pressures and demands- and are you helping her, assuring her? to survive is important, to improve our thinking, our feeling, our relationship, our genes, our movements on this planet earth. That matters.

the highest form of creating is to live peacefully with your self and those who matter to you ... and those who oppose you!!! Yes. that is the highest achievement.

- today I wrote a letter to Carol London (Hoover) in Germany (former student, 1982), whose husband is with the army, stationed in Germany, Hanau near Frankfurt. Carol received an offer by an Italian buyer of photos and drawings. Carol is cautious and has a lawyer draughting a contract, still she is much excited by this prospect.

Greetings to you and your dear wife whom i love to meet one day soon.

Let me know how you are doing and what you are drawing or painting in joy of life. I, too, will let you know about my successes and failures.

In all sincerity a bear hug to the both of you,
your Wolf

29 Nov 1983

Yielding without reservations

analogue

"I just cannot put my finger on what it is"

in a similar way = brick and mortar and beams and shingles - make a house

For: a house to be, some other "things" and "nothings" have to be present. a "nothing" is the  "freedom" to make decisions, give choices (and the most amazing "nothing" may be a choice which is not in favor of any personal immediate benefit, but to the benefit of the other, which at the same time appears to be to the detriment of my self).

(riding a coal train in January. ice-cold, windy & speed of train. old woman loses feeling in her feet. I place her feet against my bare abdomen until feeling is restored. Yet I do, by now, 2 1/2 hrs severely shiver) 1946 Heinsburg - Mannheim
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here are some of my thoughts, which are fundamental to my search and preparation of forms, to be carved into wood during the coming summer. There are already 3 tree trunks 3 to 4 feet in diameter and about 7 feet long.
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As you read this letter, please place question marks, whenever you wish (each line if possible) or exclamation marks or check marks. Perhaps a word or two - that is greatly appreciated.

The rest is self explanatory, keeping in mind that what is attempted here can actively not be said, but is present in your work.

Greetings to your dear family
                    with love
                          your Wolf



[receptors]
the ______?_______ were beginning to look increasingly similar.
the key was the receptor.
key = receptor (garble)
transliteration + hormone = key / receptor = ?

(through) by means of the receptor, the hormones acted.
It was essential to discover the receptors.
the receptors (their numbers and distribution is more important than the hormones 1. (from our momentary view) the hormones had been discovered, the receptors were much more difficult to locate and were discovered last.
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Now, we think we know it all (or at least, we know a great deal about hormones and receptors to feel confident to locate the "rest" of the hormones and receptors). Yet that is, or would be, our downfall to assume that the sequence of hormone - receptor - effect is all there is to a human being. [to a machine, yes]
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the sequence - to realizing something extraordinary about a human being, or life, or kosmos, searching for the cause of this something         will bring us to discovery! - and the means of our search will determine (to a large extent) what and how we find. Machines will find mechanism, chemistry will find chemicals, physics will find energy.
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we have in the past misused our faint awareness of the "extraordinary" (ordinary = known order) ordinary is chemistry, physics i.e. metaphysics. And we know that this does not account for the extraordinary stirrings of a human being.
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we need to leave (at least for a moment) the tools of any kind beside us, perhaps even be without tools (crutches).
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to be human, fully, is to let all we are         fully be
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few ever experienced such fullness in letting be. Those who do, carry for the rest of their lives this eminent experience.

Alan Watts says - we can not prepare for it. what we are facing (or missing or wanting) is an event; something which takes place without (1) interference, therefore (2) without planning (3) equally without hope, which (is) a force of a peculiar set, (4)without attention, since attention is a directive force which restricts the fullness of our cosmos.

From this "negative" premise we may be experiencing something or rather that which is all encompassing, where all potentials are appropriately contributing in a concerted (cybernautical?) (exchange?) accord.
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such accord, when experienced, is of a uniqueness, to which we have no means to address either thought in the logical sequence of words or sentences.

we see successful attempts of conveyance in a work of art.
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A work of art, therefore, is just about as rare as the event, wherein a human being experiences the fullness of accord of the cosmos within the cosmos, which is when we have given free all possibilities to arrange themselves into a constellation of letting be.

A yielding without reservations.
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It may help to say, this event is the most dynamic interplay possible. the recollection [since the complexity is so vast the words cannot hold it and since we are trained like rats to label all we know with words and if there are no words for it than it does not exist(!)] therefore is only momentary. 1. we are flooded with unspeakable joy (close to ecstasy. it is not ecstasy because we are just coming out of ecstasy and in the coming out we experience the residues of that ecstasy; once more the ecstasy is the sum of giving all the potentials to themselves for them to find the optimal (momentary) accord. Coming out of this highest state of being we are different. We differ so profoundly, that an identical state (repetition) is just about impossible. [correct! nevertheless]

we remember only the residue of the ecstasy.
(because even memory is a minute part of that accord)

And, as soon as memory is playing it's main part again (after the accord) i.e. during our calculating, waking hours of logically oriented life, we even lose that which we gained during (ek - stasis) ecstasy. the brain is disturbed by our daily distractions and illogical forces of social behavior, that nothing will remain of this vast happening of "all in accord", but a vague glow and wish to be able to repeat. If we yield to such wish - it would be the death knell to ever growing out of that state.

(again: because the distinction of an ecstasy as a happening from an ecstasy caused by wish or desire is initially not possible. therefore we recognize the term = "let be", as the sole reference to something which is of utmost importance to all human beings. (Be it emphasized = this: "let be" is of an integrity and comprises an inner strength and willing readiness given to all human beings and experienced by so few, solely or only by a few because we cling to our indoctrination. Therefore this emphasis on well-being experience as being among all human beings. Become aware.

19 Feb 1988

Our times are totally clear: money dominates everything

05:15 AM  July 20. 1987

cool, cloudy, refreshing mountain air in northern New Hampshire

The miracle of life remains unaltered - no matter how often it occurs. (Whoever loses this sense for it will know their existence is off course - and in need of fundamental and massive help).

For another 14 days I will be here, with Sarah and her immediate family. To the German language lessons-- we never had time, since everyone is working to make cold cash. Absolutely sad if these dear friends (7 of them) could only see their plight. No, I can utter not a single word. it is of no use when so much determination for such money need is present people are caught up or trapped to that extent. They can not see. Their perception is that of: this is the only way. And the terror is, the more they make, the more they spend, the more they need ---------------- the less they have.
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the ultimate terror to me is - in that engagement they lose the only thing they EVER had =
their youth, their time.
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one myth is = our times are confused.
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to unravel
to reveal - we confuse ourselves
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our times are totally clear:
money dominates everything.
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a few, careful people, live with "less" than they could afford. They look to all others as being rich.

Therefore I define richness = to live with a happy heart on less than we already have.

this is identical to saying = we have time to think.

to have time to think, is, again = equal to having time to feel, time to act; since these three (action, feeling, thinking) are one.

To you, dear Phillip, I can speak this with ease, since you know this so well and since you live out of an understanding of this.

Mountain greetings,
Your Wolfram

P.S.

Phillip, you may wonder what I do here?

the bathroom floor was rotting out
water was standing in the carpet, etc.
the furnace made a noise, vibrating the floor.
the switch did not work in the living room.
the stove needed cleaning.
the window screen was torn.
the radiator leaking.
the concrete steps were cracked, on the outer porch.
the trees needed trimming of dead branches.
drawers and doors were stuck or unhinged

and so on.
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His wife, Julie, was instrumental to buy this house about 10 years ago. She died 2 years ago. Heart, - passive smoker. Everyone is smoking still!
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When I came here this summer and saw the condition of the house I promised myself to restore the main parts, so everyone can feel well about Julie, who suggested to buy this specific house as summer retreat - 4 months. (it is rented out for 6 months during fall & winter to skiers). Julie, 52 years old, was a student of the sculpture class and art history (1982-85)

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September will see the begin of casting bronze in the Wisconsin studio.     Love    Wolfram

I forgot to live

Dearest Phillip,

Yesterday I was in such a rush to get all the chores done, that I entirely forgot to live--

Thank you for your letters

now i am back

i will write.

Love, Wolf

April 17, 1987

Wolfram Niessen at his studio in Wheeler, Wisconsin

Wolf work-in-progress, 1997

"Niessen's Uncluttered Style" (1966)

Mr. Niessen explained in an interview in the Yellow Door Gallery that his work "unclutters life." He feels his expression "simplifies life without removing its complexity." Mr. Niessen's most sincere motive of styling is his life's experience, he said. He wants the spectator to share his understanding of life in an active capacity. His works are simple statements of complex events. "Simplicity is needed to convey the imminence of it's (an event or a relationship) complexity, bringing it down to its essential. This opens all avenues for the viewer on his own he said. This unity of concept becomes evident through close examination of each medium. He stays within a medium for a given length of time, choosing that medium which best suits the complexity he wants to convey. Alabaster is perhaps, externally, his simplest expression. The poly-rotunda figures have a grace and softness that makes one almost want to caress them. They are meant to be handled and placed at different angles. Here the complexity of all existence is seen in the complexity of planar relationships. As in human experience, there arc mild and powerful aspects to the character of the stone. Mr. Niessen's bronze works are of a more intimate nature. They are smaller and more delicate than the other works. The subject matter always contains the potential monumentality of experience. This potential is especially evident in Young Mother, a small statue of a pregnant woman. The bonds of human relationships are given strength due to their media. Mother and Child, done in iron-wood, depicts a mother holding her child with no physical division between the two figures. This sensitive event, done in so powerful an expression, allows for universal involvement. Similarly, Family Portrait, done in granite and having no individuating features, shows the family as an indivisible unit. The complexity of this relationship becomes more evident through the texture of the stone. Mr. Niessen finds love through form. His life experience breaks through the shapes which he feels "have the original in the deep rooted and well-founded working of the universe." Meditation and intuition give him an insight, the ultimate source of which cannot be traced, but which is intimate with universal events. His drawings arc the culmination of his personal experiences which can't be relived. They are the result of a development of his thoughts and ultimately become a perfection of experience. The technicality of relationships is further evident in his brass works. The viewer becomes aware of the infinite number of angles and ways of looking at a particular subject. Sea Foam, a fascinating movable work done with copper and iron, allows for a certain adaptability and harmony in complexities. Wolfram Niessen feels his works are for everybody, and he likes to talk about them. Now a professor at Stout State University at Menomonie, Wisconsin, he finds great satisfaction in teaching. His intensity and appreciation of human response give him an unlimited depth in his expression.

"The Yellow Door: Niessen's Uncluttered Style" by Frances Cohen (Winnipeg Free Press, 26 Feb 1966)

"Bronze Bust of Gov. Warren P. Knowles..." (1968)

A Bronze bust of Gov. Warren P. Knowles and his wife, being presented to the couple at a luncheon Sunday as gifts from a Bayside furniture designer, are described by the donor as a gift in gratitude for the Republican executive's encouragement of Wisconsin business activity. John W. Boughton, who commissioned German-born sculptor, Wolfram Freidrich Niessen, for the works, said the gifts to the Knowles reflect thanks from those "who have felt the impact of what they have done for people in a creative field of business." Broughton, president of Willowbrook Corp. of Thiensville, said gratitude is due Mrs. Knowles for her encouragement of what he called "artistic efforts in Wisconsin". Niessen is an assistant art professor at Northern Michigan University. He began work on the busts in August. He also was on the art faculty of Stout State University in Menomonie for two years until last spring. His work of the governor is of patina-ed bronze, and that of Mrs. Knowles is of polished bronze.

Eau Claire Leader, 12 Jan 1968

"Wolfram Niessen, Stout Artist, Wins Praise in Canada" (1966)

A one-man sculpture show by a Stout University artist has won acclaim in Winnipeg, Canada. The artist is Wolfram Niessen, a sculptor who works in a variety of media including wood, alabaster, granite, bronze, brass and others. In his show at the Yellow Door gallery in Winnipeg, his first Canadian show, Niessen is exhibiting 60 pieces and has reported the sale of nearly half of them. A writer for .the Winnipeg Free Press characterized Niessen's work "He uses a great variety of media, but his conception of life and relationships becomes a single constant reality throughout all phases of his work," the critic reported. The writer said Niessen feels his expression "simplifies life without removing its complexity." Referring to works in the show, the writer said, "The bonds of human relationship are given strength due to their media. Mother and Child, done in iron-wood, depicts a mother holding her child with no physical division between the two figures. This sensitive event, done in so powerful an expression, allows for universal involvement."

The Daily Telegram, 10 Mar 1966