A Dream in Three Dimensions

If you ever find yourself discussing trompe l’oeil (“tromp loy”) with Peter and Halina Geselowitz, make sure you never refer to examples of this ancient art as “murals.” There is, as they will quickly point out, a world of difference between a regular mural and the kind of three-dimensional optical illusion known as a trompe l’oeil – French for “fools the eye.”

So consider, for a moment, the trompe that Peter recently completed for developer Bob Brackett at downtown’s renovated Seminole Building. As you gaze up at the building from 14th Avenue, you will see on its south wall a second-floor balcony with a wrought-iron railing, three windows and two women sheltering from the sun under an eave of the tiled roof. One woman is holding a parasol and is being painted by the other woman.

Read the entire article in the November 2000 issue