“Con” Artist

Trompe l’oeil (trick of the eye) artist John Pugh is a native Californian whose deceptive murals decorate walls from Honalulu to Hayward, CA.

Pugh has brought the structure of an architect, the intellectual vision of a scholar, the humor of a comedian, and the narrative ability of a master storyteller to his craft. His murals cleverly fool the viewer into seeing a modern facade’s broken wall revealing Greek columns or a bull grazing in front of an unfinished mural. But his art also captures the imagination and engages the mind. “Once captivated by the deception,” he says, “the viewer is lured into crossing an artistic threshold and is seduced into exploring the concept of the piece.”

If only New York had his talents for the subway cars of the seventies…