This article was taken from the August issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content bysubscribing online
It looks like a regular portrait. In fact it’s a model who’s been covered in acrylic paint. Washington-DC-based artist Alexa Meade, 23, took the idea from the trompe l’oeil technique, which uses optical illusion to make two dimensional paintings appear 3D.
“This project grew out of a fascination with moving shadows cast by the Sun,” she says. “I experimented with the effects of painting shadows on to moving people, and I discovered that it didn’t matter where people were in relation to the original light source.”
This is a photo of one of her favourite models, an antiques dealer she met last Halloween. “My living paintings transform people into art objects. It’s not often an artwork can return the viewer’s gaze. A lot of people gawk, but only a brave few dare to make eye contact.”
<img src="http://cdni.wired.co.uk/309x428/o_r/Oil-Painting-Large.jpg" alt="Oil Painting?"/>
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
