James Stanford’s Shimmering Zen of the Mandala | IdeelArt

As a child, James Stanford had little experience with fine art. He was born in Las Vegas in 1948, 13 years after gambling was legalized in the city, and three years before the U.S. Government began testing nuclear bombs in the surrounding desert. The fledgling City of Sin boasted plenty of risks at that time, and plenty of distractions, but one thing it did not offer was an art museum. In fact, the first museum Stanford ever visited was the Prado, in Madrid, Spain, at age 20. He recalls that visit as his first experience ever with fine art, and says that it was a personal religious experience. Stanford describes standing in front of a painting called “Deposition,” by the 15th Century, Netherlandish Mannerist painter Rogier van der Weyden, and admiring the intricate technique the artist had used to outline the figures in the painting, which made them seem to float outward from the rest of the scene.