Ross Holden

Ross Holden is an old friend and collaborator from way back. I commissioned him to do loads of illustration for adrenalin magazine back in the day. During the invasion of Iraq he started making mandalas from grabbed images of the media. The images grouped together, in geometric form (sometimes horrific images, sometimes challenging images), by the alchemy of the art process, were changed into something intriguing and beautiful. Now he's been commissioned by everyone from Transport For London to KIA cars to put these things together. Tibetan buddhists spend meticulous hours, days, weeks constructing mandalas, these incredibly intricate patterns from coloured sand as a process of meditation. They aim for a kind of stillness-in-movement of mind and body whilst constructing them, before wiping them away with an instantaneous sweep of the hand. Impermanence. In a way, surfers draw lines on waves that celebrate their fleeting form before they disappear forever on the shore. Mandala. Good name for a surfboard label.