With this work, I aim to push geometry to its limits, transcending the confines of color. My goal is to showcase the creative potential of simple concentric squares as a medium for experimentation and the discovery of new op art patterns. By delving into this exploration, I strive to unveil captivating illusions of color and mesmerizing motion.
Draw a large and a small square with thick lines and center them (Fig. A). Next, blend the inner and outer squares in six steps to create a set of concentric squares. Reproduce the set to form a larger square pattern, as shown in Fig. B.
In these minimalist op art works, I explore geometry as metaphor, using the hexagon as a building block for cubes and other regular solids. The forms appear stable and believable, yet they are impossible. Their contradiction isn’t obvious at first; it reveals itself only when the eye slows down and follows the structure closely. By merging incompatible viewpoints and softening the boundary between inside and outside, the drawings turn logic against itself. The more ordinary the form looks, the stronger the effect—these objects are meant less to trick the eye than to unsettle the mind and challenge our sense of space.
The two drawings displayed above and below combine paired tribars to form an impossible isometric cube, where form and illusion lock into a single structure.
Here, the “volume” turns itself inside out, quietly echoing the logic of a Klein bottle and unsettling the usual distinction between interior and exterior.
I am currently in the process of writing an informative book titled “Mastering Optical & Geometric Art: A Journey to Captivating Creations.” With a length of 136 pages, this book serves as an engaging guide to creating visually striking optical art and intricate 2D and 3D patterns. If you are interested in exploring further, I invite you to connect with me on Amazon.
As an artist, I enjoy including subliminal messages or figures in my work. My paintings, photographs and collages play on the foreground and background relationship of our visual perception and represent common or iconic faces the viewer has to rediscover.
In this magical bookmark of my creation, a portrait of M. L. King appears when held over a blank page or up to a light. From his famous words, we are reminded that, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.” A neat gift available from Art of Play.
While in this one below, a portrait of Gandhi appears when held over a blank page or up to a light — a subtle reminder to read with intention and “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Still available from my partner Art of Play.
Although NOTHING moves on the gif below – only the colors change! – it’s easy to spot which direction the wheel is “rotating”… But which side is in front? Which side the back?
Another hypnotic version in which still squares and diamonds seem to move, but only colors change slightly!
When your brain lies… There is NO yellow, nor red, nor green in the picture below! The only real colors are blue, cyan and magenta. Scientists and artists call these color induction effects “simultaneous color contrast” and “color assimilation”.
This series of works questions the many cognitive aspects of faces’ recognition. People often see hidden faces in things, clouds, landscapes, or in architectural structures… Finding the latent or virtual image hidden in the manifest image is a mental process related to the concept of the “lost object” used in psychoanalysis. As an artist, I enjoy including subliminal messages or figures in my work. My paintings, photographs and collages play on the foreground and background relationship of our visual perception and represent common or iconic faces the viewer has to rediscover.
Photomosaic portrait of Albert Einstein made with random photographs of numbers. It is only when the viewer moves away from the image that the portrait of Einstein appears. It is the distance that creates and unveils the truth, because everything is relative as Einstein once said and everything depends on the context, the environment or the point of view.
Some simple geometric patterns and designs, when repeated, can induce strong illusory shape distortions. Thus, visual misperceptions are very common in the op art world.
If dark and clear rectangular tiles are arranged in a checkered fashion, as shown below, there is obviously no illusion, but wait, just add at the intersection of these tiles some transparent dark and clear square patches, et voilà, magic appears!
So, transparencies can produce apparent linear distortions. The parallel red lines in this example look like being convergent / divergent.
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.”
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.”
“Unspirals” is a series of silkscreen-print projects (still in progress). These colorful geometric op art works appear to rotate and move. They are great promotional supports for companies and products.
