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History of Wholeo, the Stained Glass Dome, Text Path

What is it? How did it come to be? Where is it going?
As you read, click on highlighted works to open related images.

San Francisco, 1967

Wholeo started with a vision quest for the whole self and the desire to be completely immersed in colored light. In San Francisco, I made a scale model design for a colored dome. Eventually, the actual dome turned out quite differently. It could not be confined to the preliminary vision.

| small GIF | larger JPEG | 1"=1' model for a 12'-diameter dome.

To prove the concept, I built a test panel on two foam shells, to the curvature of the hemisphere. These pictures show the panel and the colored light from the panel projected onto a foam shell. Eventually, the panel became part of Wholeo.

| small GIF | larger JPEG | "Cells," the first panel in Wholeo.
| larger JPEG | Colored foam.

New York, 1968

After moving to Staten Island, N.Y., I talked to architects, experimented with plastic frameworks, and read the "Whole Earth Catalog" and the "Dome Book." I created and built some panels on a light table.

| small GIF | small JPEG | The first table design, made from excelsior, plaster, and 2' x 4' wooden beams, cut to the curvature of the dome.
| larger JPEG | The light table made of acrylic topped with vinyl tubing to hold nails, topped with a vinyl sheet for drawing.
| larger JPEG | Improvisational design on a curved light table.
| larger JPEG | A finished panel lying on the light table.

Berkeley and Forestville, California, 1972

Four years and many paintings, drawings, and 20 glass panels later, I was ready to put up the dome frame. I needed to see the glass in position in natural light. So I headed for California.

| small GIF | larger JPEG | Painting for the brain cell, one of many studies.
| larger JPEG | Structural design showing panels completed.
| larger JPEG | Moving the panels on curved foam, from NY to California.

In Berkeley, I made the aluminum tube frame and put up the NY panels for the first time. At last I was quite sure it could work and it was a wonderful idea. To make the dream come true, I found a site on the sunny side of a canyon in Forestville, Sonoma County on a ranch named "Harmony." There I built a dome to live in while finishing Wholeo. My only utility was cold water with a spigot. The setting fostered the solitude and serenity needed to realize the visions of the search for the whole self.

| larger JPEG | Berkeley test of the tube frame and panels.
| small GIF | larger JPEG | Here is the live-in dome named "Bump" as seen from Wholeo, which was still unfinished.
| larger JPEG | At Harmony, the dome flowed into place.
| larger JPEG | The signature, date, and copyright panel was installed.
| larger JPEG | The last panel finished was the door.

Monte Rio, California, 1975

Take a look at the geodesic aluminum tube frame skeleton that holds up the skin of leaded glass panels. The next picture shows a single panel perched high against the sky. It is the first one on the dome in its new home near the Russian River.

| small GIF | larger JPEG | Installing Wholeo in Monte Rio.
| small GIF | larger JPEG| In Monte Rio, a blessing for Wholeo, 1976. When the leader, Dionysus, said he wanted to reach out and touch the colors, I gave him a lift. He still couldn't touch the top of the dome, which was up nine feet from the ground.

Wholeo remained open to the public in Monte Rio for six years. Now it is in storage, awaiting its next site.

Where is Wholeo's Home?

This page last modified : Mon Feb 19 1996

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