Las Vegas Signs are Transformed Into Mandalas | Tricycle

Perhaps no place exemplifies samsara in the American imagination more than Las Vegas, the intoxicating gambling den marked by greed and desire. But the artist and Las Vegas native James Stanford sees something different in Sin City: Zen. He creates dazzling modern mandalas by digitally manipulating photographs of the Mojave Desert and vintage neon signs. “We think the dharma is outside of us,” Stanford told Tricycle. “I asked myself, why look far away for the answers when they are right here in my own backyard? Las Vegas exemplifies the nonduality of nirvana and samsara.”