UNIVERSAL CLARITY

A Philadelphia glass artist has made a secular sanctuary for the ages

- SARAH ARCHER

Super/Natural — an immersive, dome-shape work of art in stained glass by Judith Schaechter — is really best experienced from the inside.

Step through its small portal, and in the right light, you will be surrounded by the polychromatic glow of birds, stars, insects and fantastical plants and roots. Earlier this year, I was able to experience it in Schaechter's home studio and felt a curious combination of serenity and awe.

This is by design, it turns out. Radiance has a profound effect on humans — something that medieval architects and glass artisans understood centuries ago.

"I am not a religious person, but it is hard not to feel overcome by a sense of awe and wonder when you enter the dome," said Laura Turner Igoe, chief curator at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The 2.5m-tall work, along with nine glass panels and two related drawings exploring humanity's relationship with the cosmos, is now on view there in "Judith Schaechter: Super/Natural", which opened April 12 and runs until Sept 14.

"You are surrounded by a riot of plants, insects, birds," Igoe said, and even "skeletons and bones. It represents both the glorious abundance of life and its interconnectedness with death and decay. It's beautiful, but it's also a little scary".

Schaechter created the piece during her recently completed stint as an artist-in-residence at the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics in her home base of Philadelphia, about 60km from the Michener.

The centre was on her radar because she had read and enjoyed a 2013 book on the science of consciousness and beauty called