Optical Illusion of The Day: Cecilia Is a Bit Of a Wall Flower

Posted: 03 Mar 2012 04:26 PM PST

Artist Cecilia Paredes could easily be labeled as the “female Liu Bolin,” but to do so would only marginalize the talent of the Peruvian painter whose detailed, patterned paintings are worthy of being respected on their own merits. Besides, the simple fact that she tends to leave her chestnut brown hair and dark brown eyes visible in so many of her pictures, means that she doesn’t really want to hide away completely like Bolin tends to do. Instead, the artist says that she creates her camouflaged artwork as part of her “quest of belonging.”

“The theme,” she explains, ” is re-location after displacement and migration and how one has to adjust in order to belong.” While most of us haven’t gone through the difficulties of migration, the idea of trying to change ourselves in order to fit in is something we can all relate to, even if only from those awkward teen years.

And that’s precisely why Paredes’ art works so well. While they do tend to hide most of the subject, they still show enough of the person underneath, reminding us that no mater how hard we try to fit in, our true selves will always shine out to some extent.

Of course, it’s also a reminder than in art, as well as life, those people that truly want to be seen must stop being wallflowers at some point and dare to step out into the limelight!