World-renowned Chinese artist Liu Bolin has created a new work for a solo exhibition called Art Hacker.  One of the works from this series included re-creating da Vinci’s classical masterpiece, the Mona Lisa.  Instead of using paints on a traditional medium, Bolin uses scores of human bodies as his canvas.  A press release promoting this exhibition notes the following about Bolin’s re-imagined Mona Lisa.

Provocatively challenging the viewer to question what is above and beneath the surface, the work intends to reflect upon the complex relationship between the past and the present, the reality and the illusion, as well as individuality and history.

The following close-up helps to show how the human subjects were painted to re-create this classic painting.

(via Klein Sun Gallery)

An ice fisherman named Blake Foster took this photo on Lake Absarraca in Cheyenne, Wyoming on December 10.  At the time, he thought that there could perhaps be a body frozen under the ice.  While it does look pretty creepy, Cheyenne police investigated and have determined that it is nothing more than an “optical illusion created by the ice”.

Officer Kevin Malatesta details the investigation as follows:

Our officers responded along with the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department.  They walked out there with the fisherman onto the ice to check and they were unable to find anything resembling a human body or human remains.

I hope everyone is having a terrific Thanksgiving.  Today’s optical illusion is an homage to the bird that many of you will be feasting on today (and likely for several more days to come in the form of left-overs).  This hand painting by Guido Daniele features a turkey.  The painting is part of his series that he calls Handimals which has received a considerable amount of international interest.

(via Guido Daniele)

This image was captured on October 8, 2014 by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).  The SDO obverses the sun at all times as it orbits in space and captured this haunting photograph of the sun.  The sun flares at this specific time came together to cause the sun to resemble some sort of face.  And since it is orange and circular, the “face” looks like a glowing jack-o-lantern.

This is not the first natural illusion captured by satellite cameras from space.  If you’d like to check out a couple of others, be sure to revisit the Indian in the Mountain and the Elephant on Mars.

(via NASA)

John Langdon just e-mailed me a new brand new ambigram that he created for a project that he is currently working on.  The ambigram features the word “Wonderland” and reads exactly the same if you flip the image upside down.  I particularly like the way that the W forms the N & D when inverted.

As you might imagine from the ambigram, the project John is working on relates to a modern day retelling of the Lewis Carroll classic Alice in Wonderland.  His version is titled Alice and the Graceful White Rabbit and is filled with puns, wordplay, and hidden Rock and Roll references just waiting to be discovered.

You can support this project and reserve a copy of the book for yourself by visiting John’s Kickstarter campaign.  The funds raised from this campaign will be used for costs associated with printing the book and compensating the illustrator who will be creating 12 full-page illustrations and a lot of smaller drawings scattered throughout the book.  As a long-time admirer of John’s art, I have backed this Kickstarter campaign and I hope that you will consider it as well.  Click here to learn more about this exciting and ambitious project.

While searching for some political optical illusions with the upcoming presidential election in the United States, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I ran across this one.  Someone was clever enough to draw out the head of Republican presidential candidate (and billionaire) Donald Trump.  Then they got their cat to lay directly on the top of the image representing his unusually furry and orange hair.

Bravo!  Will this man be elected with the newly-released information about the FBI opening the email investigation on the Democratic candidate?  If anyone has any good Hillary-related optical illusions, please let me know and I will get it posted before election day.  Whatever your views, make sure you get out and vote!

In honor of Halloween, I thought I would post up something that I find to be a little bit on the creepy side.  Some artist (if you know who did this, please let me know and I can add a credit at the bottom of the post) decided to paint a full eye on the mouth of this woman.  There is something that is very peculiar and disturbing about this body painting.  I can’t look at it for very long with getting a little spooked.

Have a fun and safe Halloween, I hope all the kids get lots and lots of candy!