Transformative Light
Lumonics Light and Sound Gallery, 800 E. 73 Avenue, #11, in Denver, Colorado, is the latest embodiment of a theme initiated decades ago by married artists Mel and Dorothy Tanner. It began in 1969 when Mel had a transformative experience after seeing light flash off a plane passing overhead. He then dedicated himself to exploring the consciousness raising aspects of light in his art. "It really brought something out in him."
It was the sixties, and the two felt more comfortable hanging out with countercultural college students than representatives of their own generation. "We worked with other mediums, metal, glass, you know, but once we discovered acrylics and light, nothing else was good enough."
Mel Tanner passed away in 1993, but Dorothy has continued their work. She was dancing around ecstatically all night among all the glowing idols and fractal film strips created by herself and Marc Billard when I first went there a few months ago, telling me at one point, "You have to understand, my purpose with all the art I make is to get people high."
"High?"
"High. Stoned. An altered state induced by the environment."
"Okay," I agreed.
"This is a venue that allows people to have transformative experiences."
Now THAT's hospitality.
She drew my attention to a painting on the wall. "That's a chakra piece, there."
I pulled down my collar. "Which chakra is this?"
"I'm sorry, my eyes-"
"I have a scar right here on my throat," I pointed. "I'm just wondering what that chakra's called."
"Well, it's the throat chakra."
"Oh, okay. Do you know what it stands for?"
"Well, you have to understand, most of my relationship to the chakras has been based on colors-as an artist."
"Aesthetic effect."
"Right."
"Okay. So what does this piece mean to you?'
"I'd rather not explain the art," she said, making an emphatic gesture with her fist. "I'd rather have you write about what it says to you." She apologized for not being more forthcoming, and I told her not to worry, I didn't like explaining my writing to people, either, and it was a pleasure to talk to her.
Dorothy Tanner was there last night, too. "You remember me? Zack Kopp?"
She took me into a hidden back chamber and showed me two works in progress-one was a striking blue cat shape called, "Slim Cat", the other a prickly, red bristle of flames. "I'm asking everyone to choose a name for that one."
"Blossom," I suggested.
"Blossom?"
"Yeah, 'cause it's fire, of course, but you don't need to say that in the name."
"Well, it does look rather organic."
A woman named Sienna rang bells and singing bowls around my head while I stared into a lit sculpture full of bubbling water meant to transport me out of this universe into another. "That was very refreshing," I told her. "Still in the same universe, but it's better." She gave my friend Ellen the same treatment. "I saw into the universe's ear!" joked Ellen, and later showed me how to look through the sides of some light paintings at other works of art across the room, "like a kaleidoscope." She started dancing like a beam of jagged moonlight when the DJ started, her body a long swirling ripple around and around.
Dorothy says the direction Lumonics will take is changeable. Plans are in the works to host spoken word at the venue starting in November, and "church without religion" The Red Door is moving its meetings on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month to Lumonics until a more suitable venue is found. "People in Colorado are more spiritually-oriented than in Florida, " says Dorothy, "where we had a studio for several years."
According to Barry Raphael, who Dorothy says joined the troupe circa 1972, the most important thing is "letting people know about the three events we do on the 2nd and 4th week of the month. Brett Starr who leads VOYAGERS on Tues. is the DJ for The Red Door, and Valency Gorman who facilitates the Moving Meditation on Wed. also leads the movement segment at The Red Door. And of course, we have our Saturday Evening at Lumonics on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays."