The history of atomic weapon testing is a big part of Southern Nevada’s lore. It especially made an impression on one Las Vegan who grew up during the Atomic Age. As a young man, born-and-raised James Stanford turned his fascination with the sights and science of atomic energy into an aesthetic. He’s since become one of Las Vegas’ most noteworthy artists, helping foster an arts community here, as well as publishing books and showing his work across the globe.
Stanford recently released The Atomic Kid, which is connected to his latest commissions in a new exhibit at the National Atomic Testing Museum. He spoke to KNPR about the twofold project, as well as his life and artistic career in Southern Nevada.
On growing up in the shadows of the mushroom clouds: "It's been a fascinating life. I didn't realize how unusual it was until I started doing these works for the [Atomic] museum, and then I realized that I was really in a unique situation, having been born in Las Vegas, three years before atomic testing, and then having witnessed all of it as a small child. I thought everybody had atomic testing! ... I began to realize as I became about 10, 11 years old, how totally unusual it was, and, in a way, how frightening it was."
On how he addresses art vs. destruction in his atomic-inspired work: "I'm a firm believer in the idea of the unity of polarity — that in order to understand a principle, you have to know what's opposite, and you have to understand that the opposite is on the same pole, just different ends of it. Along with the great terror and horror of nuclear energy, especially the atom bomb, there's also a great beauty in the spectacle of the bomb. So I wanted to pay obeisance to both the spectacle and the terror of the bomb, and that was my goal."
On where his experience in both art and science converged in his Atomic Museum work: "One of the rooms [of the exhibit] is radiation. And so I have a piece that is specifically geared towards this idea of how to picture something that you can't see, that is dangerous. It really colored a lot of my artistic questioning — how do I picture something that can't be seen? That's a very unusual question for an artist to ask, right?"
On how digital technology transformed his aesthetic: "I had been concentrating on painting and only using photography to document things, ideas that I might want to render and paint. When I started learning on the Macintosh, I started learning Photoshop and Illustrator. I really became aware of the power of being able to use photography. Also, digital photography started to happen for me. The expense of being a photographer was something that was always a challenge for me as a student. Now, I could take photographs freely, and if they didn't work out, no big deal — just throw them away. ... So I found myself taking photographs of things I would never have considered photographing."
On helping usher in an arts scene in Las Vegas: I remember when it first started off, when my wife Lynn [Morris] and I were contributing to the [Contemporary Arts Collective] and trying to build something here, we were responsible, along with Kathleen Nathan and other artists, to move the CAC to downtown and create this whole downtown arts district. It was such a fledgling thing, I was unsure of how it was going to go even then. But when we had our first exhibit [in 1996], which was called Mona Mona Mona, it was on Charleston Boulevard, [and] there were so many people that came that night. There had to be nearly 1,000 people that were flooding the streets ... I knew at that moment we had hit a nerve, that we had created something that was going to grow and flourish, and it was one of the most exciting times of our lives.
Guest: James Stanford, artist and author
