Trompe l'Oeil Tomfoolery

Muse, Jul/Aug 2005 by Kangas, Nancy

We think making it look like a seal is popping up through a blowhole in the middle of the sidewalk is great fun. (It's our Inner Kokopelli talking.) Well, it started us musing: what other mischief could you make using trompe l'oeil (paintings that fool the eye)?

Here are our top eight ideas, up for grabs for all you trompe l'oeilists.

1. Shut the door of your room, and on the outside, paint the inside so that it looks absolutely clean and organized. Don't forget to paint your bedspread tucked in and smoothed, a textbook open on your desk, and the beginning of a letter to your great aunt lying on the nightstand.

2. When your eyelids are shut, paint them so they look open! This will allow you to catch some shuteye when the situation requires you to appear lost in thought.

3. Why not remove the hands from the clock face in your classroom and paint on new hands that make it one minute before the bell rings? Be sure to point this out right as the teacher is about to hand out a quiz.

4. At the bottom edge of your friend's locker door, paint something really disgusting oozing out and pooling in a gross puddle.

5. If you have access to a big lamp or telephone pole, try painting a section so it looks like it isn't there. (You might have to paint a big X on the sidewalk to show where a person needs to stand in order to be properly fooled.)

6. Paint the side of your parents' car so it looks like somebody just rammed into it real good.

7. Paint a big black spider in the corner of your little brother's closet.

8. Paint a trompe l'oeil on a trompe l'oeil. So, like, you've got a wall, and you paint it to look like a balcony with a view and in that view, uh, you put a wall? Wait, this is impossible, isn't it? If anyone can figure this out, please let us know.

-Nancy Kangas