It doesn't hurt to ask

-
Two days ago, I picked up a very nice art book called Master's of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion.

It features the work of many extremely talented illusory artists and at $19.95 Canadian it was an extremely reasonably priced book considering it is full colour and quite large. The problem was that the bottom edge of the book was dirtied and slightly damaged. I looked for another copy but could not find one. I asked at the cash if they had any undamaged copies and they found another, but it too suffered from the same imperfection.

I asked if another store had any copies. They did, but it was in worse shape then the ones I had in my hand - the cover was torn.

So I took the least damaged copy, they gave me a 20% damage discount (book is now non-returnable) and I got an additional 10% off because I'm an iRewards member. (Going online, I see I could have got an immaculate copy for pretty much the same price).

Being religious, I find this picture by Octavio Ocampo extremely powerful.

Image nabbed from here and rescaled to intensify the difference between the small and large image.

If you like illusory art, I definitely recommend this book.

The author's website is here. It contains additional materials that were not included in the book, as well as some movies of "impossible" and amazing art. Book cover (the first picture) picked up from authors website.

Comments

CG said…
I liked the website you linked; really clever stuff. My favourite was the seduction of lilies. Pity I can't afford the book at either 19.00 Canadian dollars or European euros or American dollars or anything...
June 07, 2008 4:35 AM
Richard said…
carra: the good thing is that you can see them on the web for free.

Mout of Flower was my alernate choice to post.

His pictures are amazing. They are lightyears ahead of Guiseppe Archimboldo's seminal works.
June 07, 2008 1:31 PM
Ancilla said…
hey richard...
i am here and trying to keep on doing that.

there are a lot of deceptive things in life. and the art is awesome. i can't understand how they can make something like that (like the religious one that you uploaded)
June 09, 2008 5:00 AM
B said…
I am on the fence with illusory art. Undeniably, it is impressive and I appreciate the talent. Sometimes it is just hit or miss as far as how it affects me. This is an impressive image. I'm glad you were able to get the book. That is very reasonable, even with minor damage.
June 09, 2008 7:18 PM
Richard said…
ancilla: I find it hard enough trying to draw something, never mind mixing 2 or more realities together. I think it is a wonderful talent / skill. There are many other types of illusions in the book as well.

breal: as with any art, you either like it / get it or you don't. I like the art shown in the book because it really makes my mind stretch.

I showed them to the kids over the weekend and the were amazed by them too (although Jason was a little too hyper-literal with some impossible paintings - in particular a painting of two children doing a large jigsaw puzzle. On closer inspection, you could see the second child was actually in the jigsaw puzzle and that there were more children in the puzzle carrying pieces to finish the puzzle).
June 10, 2008 12:10 PM
CG said…
Mouth of flower very clever I liked it too.
June 15, 2008 9:49 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chinese Wisdom Concerning Money

-
[19September-2007 @ 17:11 EST: Revised preamble. This page still gets the most search hits: There is no Anthony de Croud. The e-mail is SPAM. I post things that pique my fancy at the moment. I like the 8 precepts, but the rest of the e-mail is junk. However, I thought it fair to post everything in its entirety. I did not write the e-mail. I did not forward the e-mail. I strongly encourage you not to forward it either. (I also encourage you to reply to whomever sent you the e-mail and tell them you don't appreciate getting junk mail.)] Received this in our e-mail (English translation follows): PRECEPTO CHINO SOBRE EL DINERO EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA CASA, PERO NO UN HOGAR, EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UN RELOJ, PERO NO EL TIEMPO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA CAMA, PERO NO EL SUEÑO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UN LIBRO, PERO NO EL CONOCIMIENTO. EL DINERO PUEDE PAGAR UN MÉDICO, PERO NO LA SALUD. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA POSICIÓN, PERO NO EL RESPETO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR LA SANGRE, PERO
Read more

Of retirement and death

-
All I long for, all I have longed for for years is to retire (prior to wanting to retire, my ambition was to play). Given a chance not to work, I would take it. However, this is not because of laziness or some inherent trait of sloth. Rather it is because I want to pursue my own interests and ideas; I want to do my own thing. One of the saddest things I find in talking with people about not working (aside from obvious disapproval) is that they like working, they would get bored not working, after all, there is only so much TV one can watch. Hmmm ... a pretty sad comment I think. I have a mind full of ideas. There are lots of things which grab my interest, which distract me as I journey through life. Finding what I want to do is hard., because every week I can have a new thing I want to pursue. Some might argue that I am not disciplined. Definitely, I am a poor finisher - great starter, but lousy finisher. I believe I have found what my ideal job would be: owning and running an incubato
Read more

Half-and-half

-
Borrowing and modifying an idea from Ingrid , I present 14 bits of information about myself. Seven are real. Seven are false. This is also partially inspired by Carra 's post about weird things about herself. When I was into model rocketry, I used to roll my own rocket engines and make my own rocket fuel. I often had "catastrophic" engine failure. I have never been intoxicated. Not even a little bit "happy". I have had the privilege and pleasure of going out with women from every continent except Antarctica (for the obvious reason there are no indigenous Antarcticans). I volunteered one Christmas at a soup kitchen. I naively believed that such simple acts of generosity helped people over temporary setbacks until they could get back on their feet. The reality was these people were pretty wretched and needed far more than a ladled bowl of soup, a slice of turkey, some stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce to get them "over the hump". It was a sta
Read more