Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 4000 x 4000 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 4000 x 4000 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail 1: 
Detail 2: :
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
Title: Circling Squares #2
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 4000 x 4000 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail 1: 
Detail 2: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Title: Circles and Squares, F series
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 4000 x 4000 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail 1: 
Detail 2: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 4000 x 4000 pixels
Date: 2019
It is all in the details.
Detail 1: 
Detail 2: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 2975 x 2975 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 3074 x 3074 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 3074 x 3074 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Title: Kaleidoscope
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 3500 x 3500 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Title: Lozenge Complex
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 2400 x 2400 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail: 
3 x 3 pattern block: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Title: Magic Carpets
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 2500 x 2500 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail 1: 
Detail 2: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Title: Magnification
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 5000 x 5000 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Title: Mandala Pattern, Series 8
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 3600 x 3600 pixels
Date: 2018
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Title: Mandala Pattern, Series 8b
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 3600 x 3600 pixels
Date: 2018
Detail: 
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 2100 x 2700 pixels
Date: 2018
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 2100 x 2700 pixels
Date: 2018
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 4500 x 4500 pixels
Date: 2018
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Title: Mandala Pattern, Series 9d
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 1500 x 1500 pixels
Date: 2018
Detail:
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 1800 x 1800 pixels
Date: 2018
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 4656 x 4962 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail: 
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 3152 x 3152 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 5400 x 5400 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 1500 x 1500 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Media: Digital image
Size of Repeat Unit: 3080 x 3080 pixels
Date: 2019
Detail: 
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
Pattern work
In the Modern Western tradition pattern has been looked down on as a decorative art and decorative arts came under attack early in the development of modernist ideas. Critics drew a distinction between high art and low art and labeled decorative arts as a low form of art. Issues of class, race and gender all factored into the debate with decorative patterns associated with folk art, with non western ethnic arts, and what was seen as women’s art like quilting, embroidery and weaving. While styles changed constantly serious artists creating “High Art” like painting and sculpture set their work apart from the world with frames and pedestals. High art was expected to focus on the human drama either directly or abstractly or deal with rarified intellectual ideas like minimalism. On the other hand the Pattern and Decoration Movement of the 1970’s championed pattern and decoration in non western and women’s art but to get their work into high art galleries and museums they these artists had to quote traditional patterns in their high art paintings. Had they taken up weaving and invented their own patterns and presented carpets, blankets or baskets to the elite galleries of fine art they would have been shut out. Times have changed and some galleries will handle fine crafts but one still does not see “decorative art” at the highest levels of the art world.
I already see myself as an outsider artist. My art does not fit in with what is being shown and sold at high end urban galleries and my desire to fit in has never been strong enough to stop me from doing whatever I want. I’ve been making mandalas for three decades and mandalas have the stigma of being oriental, a folk art, and new age. I have never seen a mandala, even ones informed by modernist ideas of abstract visual relationships, in high art galleries or museums. (One could argue that Kenneth Noland's target paintings are mandalas but the similarities are visual and not conceptual.) I’ve also been making pictures of deep space and infinite horizons since the 1980’s which look a little too much like science fiction art – another theme not suitable for a gallery of modern art. For many artists and galleries digital art is viewed with suspicion. It is seen as some how too easy - more technical than aesthetic. Now I find myself making patterns digitally simply for the pleasure of making them, without an end use in mind. I expect to eventually put them to good use but until then they simply exist as ones and zeros - as digital art for its own sake.
Philip E. Harding, July 2019