The artist Blue Sky came to national attention with his illusion artworks, starting with Tunnelvision, a trompe l’oeil painting on the side of a building which appears to be pierced by a long tunnel, overlooking the setting sun. (The sun actually sets at the time of the real one. The artist is tight-lipped about how this is achieved.) His other well-known illusion works include:

• Night Train, where a train appears to be coming out of a tunnel in the side of a building
• Overflow Parking and Wall Grabbers, where parking lots continue in gravity defying directions, and
• Levitating Dumpseter, a sculpture where people who pass by encounter a freestanding levitating dumpster with no visible means of levitation.

Even sober drivers blink and often screech to a halt as the familiar old Federal Land Bank in downtown Columbia, South Carolina comes into view. There before astonished eyes is a veritable mirage: a Tunnel hewn out of mountain rock, through which a clearly marked highway curves off to a brilliant orange sunset… The reaction to “TUNNELVISION” ranges from cheers to puzzlement. No one has tried to detour through the tunnel — yet. But there have been near crashes as motorists gawk at the phantasmagoria — apparently transfixed by the prospect of driving off into Blue Sky’s wild blue yonder.
People Magazine
February 9, 1976

Learn more about Blue Sky
Visit his official site, Blue Sky Art

Learn more about the art of trompe l’oeil and artistic illusions

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1. Artist Astronauts, Artist Cosmonauts, Artists in Space