It's like riding upside down and backwards,'' Shereen Miller, the Dallas-based artist says about anamorphic art. But Miller has spent years applying her talent for reversal imagery to painting this rare 17th Century art. And her achievement is especially remarkable given that there are no records or documents on this art which requires a potent combination of mathematics, physics, geometry "" apart from generous dollops of spirituality.
Today this artist "" who has also received accolades from former US president Ronald Reagan and former first lady Barbara Bush "" has reason enough for complacency. She avers, I am not here to desperately sell my paintings; I feel I have fulfilled my purpose as an artist.'' Her new focus is the gallery she has recently opened in hometown Bangalore.
What the visitors to the gallery encounter in the canvas is a scientifically-executed abstract form. This obscure, three-dimensional artform is a challenge to the viewer as well, as the real painting has to be seen through a reflective mirrored cylinder. When I first saw an anamorphic painting, I felt I was seeing something already inside me,'' says the articulate teacher-turned-artist. Her encounter with an anamorphic in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam, proved to be love at first sight.
The ancient art, traceable to the age of mathematician Euclid around 300 BC, posed a real challenge to Miller. You have to draw in reverse, synchronise geometry with art and apply physics and maths. You also have to take into consideration canvas boundaries, cylinder dimensions etc,'' she adds. It takes almost 300 hours of painstaking work for one painting to emerge. One such painting, Wings of Peace, was chosen to commemorate the United Nations Intern-ational Year of Peace.
There may be only 30 pieces of anamorphic art circulating in the art world today, but Miller has many more abstracts simmering in her subconscious. The world may have to wait for her finest work yet.
