one's own dome of heaven

Kiefer created art that reflects the darkness in life but he also created art that acknowledged the beauty, majestic and magic of this life, this cosmos, this everything.

When SFMOMA did a retrospective of Kiefer's work, the brochure for the show had a postcard size image of a self portrait Kiefer did that is, in the 'real' picture, larger than life. The painting has Kiefer laying on the ground, on planet earth. The viewer gets a  sense of alost seeing the earth curving around from the patch of ground upon which Kiefer has painted himself.

He is beholding a shower of falling stars. His eyes are closed, as if he is soaking up the love of the stars, maybe also soaking up a moon bath. Have you ever gone moon bathing?  I have. It can feel quite lovely to be naked under a full moon and to be still and try to soak up the moon's light.

Well, in his painting, Kiefer is soaking up the stars' light and love, the radiance and glory of being a being in his glorious universe.

That's what I see.

They did not see posters of this painting, although I am sure they asked the lucky person who owns the original painting.

I cut off the picture and took it to a printer and paid $60 to have it enlarged. The one I have is five feet long. I love it. It hangs on the wall across from my bed so I see it a lot. I put it there to remind myself that I, too, live under the same starry heavens, and I, too, can behold my own dome of heaven if I choose. It reminds me to be joyful and happy.

I wish I had the nerve to order it eight feet long but that would have been much more expensive. As it was, sixty bucks was a wild splurge.

Kiefer had anoher painting in the show I very much loved caled "Everyone lives under their own dome of heaven." This one is small. It shows a small figure, who appears, altho he is very tiny so it is hard to see for sure, as an academic, as if giving a lecture on the dome of heaven, or how to create one's own!  This figure stands in a field and is surrounded by a blue dome, his dome of heaven.

This painting was reproduced on postcards but not as a poster, or I would have bought it. I took the ost card and made it as large as I could at a color copy machine at a Kinko-like place. Kinko's is gone, eh?    I learned how to use compouters and esp. Pagemaker at Kinko's. Good memories. A good business in its day. It is sad it is gone. FedEx just doesn't compare.


Some friends have an expensive, gigantic color printer to print art quality prints. The woman in this couple is doing great art. I want to work up the nerve to ask them to make me a larger print of "Everyone lives under their own dome of heaven". I think Kenoli could scan my print, which is about 8 by 10 into his copmputer and then make me a larger print. This one could not be too big. Too big would betray the artist's it=ntetion. Kiefer did not paint many small paintings. It matters that the dome of heaven is a small one.

Sometimes, on happy days, I imagine all the people I pass in the world waddling through the world with their own see-through but vaguely blue dome of heaven. Such a bubble could separate us from one another but I think domes of heaven are permeable and it is possible to blend domes when one connects with others. It would be an extra charge of all the love that is heaven.

parsifal would approve, for he is the Gral King, the king of the kingdom of love.