Gateways Meditation Chapel
| “Gateways”, a collaboration of architect Gil Beach and painter Joe Novak during the years 1997-2002, is a prototype of a non-denominational meditation chapel integrating ‘meditation’ paintings by Joe Novak and architecture by Gil Beach. A scale model of the proposed chapel building is located at the Joe Novak studio in Rancho Mirage, California.
Through the power of deeply affective meditative paintings situated in an inspired architectural setting, the chapel is intended to provide its visitors with an elevating visual experience leading to a sense of inner connection and peace. The chapel is divided into a circular grouping of seven separate meditation spaces, each approximately 900 square feet in size, situated around and accessed from a large central atrium. Each space contains a large “meditation” painting by Joe Novak. These paintings, up to 10 feet by 17 feet in size, have been described in The New York Times as “hypnotic, meditative surfaces resonating color and light, which draw the viewer with their massive size and startling luminescence”. In each meditation space, the ambient lighting is subdued, with the paintings illuminated so that they glow. Controlled natural light filters into each space through a large louvered “window” opening from the central atrium, while the main lighting source is an overhead system of state-of-the-art interior lighting. The paintings are illuminated in accordance with their own particular requirements, in some cases with a pre-programmed cycle of changing light levels. Each meditation space has appropriate seating and standing areas, and visitors are provided at their option with multi - channel headphones programmed with music of a meditative nature. The Gateways chapel building, designed by Gil Beach, is itself a work of art, and offers an unusual combination of beauty, utility, and appropriateness .There is a synergy in the manner in which the architecture and the paintings accommodate each other to create a unified concept and experience. The building, fabricated in light colored limestone, has an over-all spiral shape, imparting a feeling of movement and vibrancy. The soaring 50 foot high skylit central atrium is, in a sense, its linchpin. It imbues the interior of the building with an uplifting sense of spiritual presence and energy, and is the point of open circulation to all seven meditation spaces as well as their source of natural light. |
