My op art piece Trinacria (1997) features three black-and-white zig-zagging shapes spiraling together to create the illusion of interwoven concentric circles. These jagged, repeating patterns add a sense of depth to the piece and produce a subtle rotating effect that seems to shift as you follow each line with your eyes.
Prints and canvases of Trinacria are available in my online gallery.
Below, an animated version enhances the effect. By focusing on the center, viewers can observe virtual circles appearing to move inward or outward, adding to the piece’s dynamic sense of rotation and depth.
Ever wondered how Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) process images? Imagine putting a photo through a pasta machine… TWICE! This creative experiment, inspired by artist Kensuke Koike, demonstrates how CNNs break down data into smaller, layered features, just like the pasta machine creates four clear images from a single input.
At first glance, they seem to be the same, but take a closer look… Can you spot what’s wrong?
I’ve always been fascinated by impossible figures, which psychologists call “undecidable figures”, meaning visual representations that challenge our perception and understanding of reality. Since the late 1980s, I’ve continued to explore this field and create new illusions, producing a series of drawings that play with the third dimension, manipulating perspectives and proportions to create original visual effects.
My work draws inspiration from two masters of optical art and impossible objects: Josef Albers and Oscar Reutersvärd. Their innovations and creations have always inspired and motivated me to continue my research in this field.
Does the color of wine change when poured into a glass? Although it may appear darker, the red shade remains the same. This visual trick is a result of the Munker-White illusion—where our brain perceives colors differently depending on their surrounding context.
If you’re fascinated by puzzles like this, reach out to my syndication agent to feature them in your publication.
This op art piece is also available as prints and canvases in my online gallery.
In 1997, I reimagined Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa through a system of 142 color beads, each precisely positioned at the nodes of an invisible two-dimensional triangular grid. Up close, the pattern appears abstract, yet from a distance, the arrangement resolves into the familiar features of the portrait, inviting viewers to recognize the image through perception and suggestion.
It is often the little things that are the basis of progress… So let me tell you a little story about the tiniest thing on earth: the dot.
Thousands of years ago, a man in his solitude scanned the night sky and saw all those dots shining like so many still fireflies, and, perhaps for fun, he decided to join them together to form shapes. This is how zodiac signs and astronomy were born.
Far away, in ancient India, the dot symbolized beauty and the eye of knowledge. But even more, the dot they called “shunya-bindu” (शून्यबिन्दु) represented what we nowadays know as zero. It was first a placeholder and then a fully fledged number, for when it is added to the right of the representation of any given digit, the value of the digit is multiplied by ten. This is how our current numbers and decimal numeration system were born.
While drawing or painting, visual artists of all times used to fix a dot – or more specifically a point in space – which was traditionally visualized from the tip of their thumb. Eventually, when this point receded so far away in space, it became known as a “vanishing point”. A vanishing point is where all converging lines of a landscape meet at the horizon. This is how perspective and geometry were born.
One day, medieval musicians were tired of having to rely solely on their memories to remember songs. So they started to use dots, named “puncti”, placed on or between four lines to represent the pitch and duration of a sound. This is how musical notation and programming were born.
In the modern era, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, dots were used in many other symbolic forms: bumps, holes, single tones, flashes of light… Do the terms Braille, Morse, punched card, or pixel sound familiar to you? This is how communication and coding were born.
This is how the humble dot, often overlooked, has served as a fundamental building block for countless advancements throughout history. Never underestimate the power of small things; within a dot was the whole universe.
Embarking on a journey in a Klein bottle? Absolutely. A Klein bottle is a mind-bending non-orientable surface, defying the usual inside-outside norms. Technically, the ship’s navigating the interior…
Are you seeing spirals? Look again, they’re actually concentric circles! This unique variation of the “Fraser spiral” plays tricks on your eyes by blending a regular line pattern (representing the circle’s circumference) with misaligned elements (the spheres with varying brightness).
Would you like to learn how to create this mesmerizing illusion? Follow my simple visual tutorial. If you have any ideas to further enhance this project, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
