MESMERIZING NEON MANDALAS BY JAMES STANFORD

JAMES STANFORD

Decoration has soul. While it’s focused on the surface of things, its purpose is to elevate, to embellish the physical and, on some level, the spiritual qualities of whatever it is adorning.

Artist James Stanford creates decorative art by repurposing vintage decorative neon signs found in Las Vegas.

His edition photomontage series, “Indra’s Jewels,” includes a group of digitally reinvented mosaics of patterns that are at once decorative and contemplative. The vibrant images are reminiscent of physics-like models of space, but also have an immaterial, spiritual quality, evoking the artist’s strong connection to Zen Buddhism.

Stanford credits his experimental approach to a transformative experience that occurred during his first visit to Europe in 1968, at the age of 20. At the Prado Museum, in Madrid, Stanford saw Rogier van der Weyden’s deeply religious 15th century painting, “The Deposition,” and was changed forever.

The artist experienced an episode of shock attributed to Stendhal Syndrome – when exposure to a particular artwork of great personal significance produces an intense psychosomatic reaction.

“I fainted in front of this painting,” Stanford recalls. “I was unconscious for 15 minutes. I woke up with a flash.... This started my devotion to painting. To me, it is part of my personal religion.”

Stanford grew up in Las Vegas and still lives there. His use of the city’s iconic 1950s & 1960s signage and architectural elements, in his photomontage pieces reflects its earlier days as small provincial town as well has his own personal history.

Shot in the Mojave Desert, Stanford layers images of these signs to reflect a mirrored geometry that speaks of unraveling and recomposing, “an endless view of being, of universal mystery.”

Mirroring his Stendhal Syndrome experience, Stanford’s decorative images create an ecstatic sensory overload.

The images shimmer as they are printed on metallic paper to evoke a sense of infinite reflection, like an abstract kaleidoscope. They convey a sense of radiant light, shadowy space and an infinity of clear forms, like a modern mandala.

The series takes as its point of departure the Hua Yen Buddhist poetic concept of totality within the metaphorical story of Indra’s Jeweled Net. Today, as an artist concerned with the development of a visual expression of metaphysics and spirituality, Stanford has garnered the attention of the art world, as well as of contemporary Buddhists, sociologists, and anthropologists.

Check out Shimmering Zen, Stanford’s new monograph, which includes 150 works created over the last 15 years. The book includes essays by the artist, the curator Elizabeth Herridge. You can purchase the book here.

Read more about Beautiful Decorations in Over-The-Top Destination Christmas Trees and  Time to Decorate Somebody!

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by James Stanford. “Kings.”
2. Image: “The Deposition.” Painting by Rogier van der Weyden. Courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum.
3. Image: by James Stanford. “Caesars Palace.”
4. Image: by James Stanford. "Lucky Lady.”
5. Image: by James Stanford. “Flamingo Hilton.”
6. Image: by James Stanford. “Modern Mandalas.”
7. Image: by James Stanford. “Aladdin Dingly Dan.”
8. Image: by James Stanford. “Shimmering Zen.” Book by James Stanford. Courtesy of Small Work Press.
9. Image: by James Stanford. “Binions A.”
10. Image: by James Stanford. “Center City.”
11. Image: by James Stanford.”Player.”
12. Image: by James Stanford. “Locos V5.”