Op Art On Metal (2)

A visual surprise is hidden within this magical bookmark I created for my partner Art of Play. From one perspective, the grooves in the metal die-cut card seem to be an abstract radial design but place the pattern against a solid dark background and a familiar portrait emerges.

Can you guess who’s this female Mexican artist who once said: “Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.”

Bookmark available from Art of Play.

Frida Kahlo
FK bookmark available from Art of Play.
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Op Art On Metal

Below are two neat optical illusion projects for which I was commissioned by “Art of Play”. From one perspective, the grooves in the metal die-cut bookmarks seem to be an abstract design but place the pattern against a solid clear or dark background and a familiar figure pops into view! These bookmarks are a sliver of wonder that hides between the pages to guard your place in any story.

Everything is relative with this magical bookmark of my creation depicting the famous theoretical physicist. Engraved with one of Einstein’s most famous quotations: “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”

Einstein bookmark – 1
Available from Art of Play: https://www.artofplay.com/products/einstein-bookmark
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Amazing Brightness Constancy Effect

Look carefully at the saw-tooth wave patterns on this picture. Is the background of the picture uniformly gray or are there different shades of gray?

Kolozanges (2013-2021), © Gianni A. Sarcone

Brightness constancy makes some vertical strips look darker, when in fact the gray background is all the same shade of gray.

This op art work is available as prints and canvases from my official online Gallery.

Ghost Colors

This is one of my earliest color optical illusions. There is no yellow or green in the diamond shapes, just vertical black lines! (If you don’t believe it, use a eyedropper tool to check it.) This intriguing visual effect is mainly due to “simultaneous color contrast induction“.

Illusive colors
Ghost Squares / Black Diamonds (2002 – 2007)
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Scintillating Starburst: Seeing rays that aren’t there…

This is one of my oldest illusions I created in the 90s. In the picture you may see ghostlike dark radial beams. This illusion is a variant of the Herman’s scintillating grid illusion. I designed this illusion just by turning 45 degrees the Herman grid and then by applying a polar transformation.

From my book “Eye Tricks“, 2001-2007.
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