What an impact Dorothy Tanner had on people she met and that experienced her art! Dorothy was born 100 years ago today.
“Light has the power to create, define, and solidify; or leave in shadow that which we believe to be real.”
“The major challenge for me in art is to keep under control the tyranny of a logical mind. The spirit that moves me is capricious, unruly and irreverent. Most of my work grows out of intuitive impulse–the rest gets underway by just playing.”
Here are some photos from the past 70+ years:
Dorothy Tanner looking at Logo
Dorothy Tanner in one of her Lumonics Mind Spas
Dorothy at work and play
Coral Springs Museum, Coral Springs, Florida 2005
1995 XS Magazine
Dorothy sitting in the performance space at Lumonics
1961 Syracuse Post-Standard
Miami News 1975
1968 Tropic Magazine, Miami Herald
Denver International Airport Gallery interview with Kirk Montgomery
Celebration of Dorothy’s birthday at the Museum of Outdoor Arts at the opening of the Tanner Retrospective in 2017
Dorothy Tanner’s early sculptures from the 1950s, excerpted from one of the pages in the book, Lumonics: The Light Art of Dorothy and Mel Tanner https://lumonics.net/lumonics-art-books/
The image below was created by our collaborator David Hanan of www.sentientmilk.com Click on this link and you can manipulate it 360 degrees with your mouse
This year was full of loss for so many, and among local immersive artists, that included renowned light art pioneer Dorothy Tanner. Dorothy’s collaborative work with her late husband, Mel Tanner, sought to embody the idea of gesamtkunstwerk, a “total art” installation that would foster a state of comfort, relaxation, and creativity. We are lucky in Colorado to be able to experience their legacy at the Lumonics Light & Sound Gallery.
In addition, one of their Mind Spas can be experienced for a limited time now through January 30th, 2021 at Understudy (at the light rail stop for Theatre District / Convention Center). The installation is free to visit at anytime, viewable from the sidewalk, though recommended after dark.
Thanks to Kate Perdoni of Rocky Mountain PBS for making this video 2 years ago and writing about Dorothy and Mel Tanner and the past, present, and future of Lumonics. (as of 2020)
“I love events that require suspension of disbelief; tales that cut under the fabric of reality to glimpse the inner workings of our subterranean selves; stories that highlight energetic receptivity; the marriage of natural law and other disciplines. Descartes received the notion of science from an angel. John Dee filled hundreds of volumes of communications with beings that advised Queen Elizabeth. And Mel Tanner got Lumonics from “The Hit,” an out-of-body experience in a diner parking lot that helped define and orient his life’s work.
Here, Lumonics co-founder Dorothy Tanner (in a 2017 interview with the Museum of Outdoor Arts- MOA) and Archivist Barry Raphael (in a 2020 interview with me at a Lumonics exhibit in Thornton) tell the origin story of Lumonics: a literal flash of light. Immersive Lumonics exhibitions since the 1960s featured live paintings, projections, sound baths, meditation rooms, and Dorothy and Mel Tanner’s renowned light sculptures, seen at Denver’s Understudy Gallery through January 30, 2021.
The exhibit at Understudy honors over forty years of the team’s intricate light creations — and marks an evolution of the Lumonics legacy. Dorothy, who received the Denver Mayor’s Arts and Culture Award for innovation in the Arts in 2018, passed in July at the age of 97. Mel passed in 1993 at age 68.
