A selection of paintings by Oklahoma-based artist Mel Arzamarski. Arzamarski graduated from the University of New Haven with a bachelors in Fine Arts and is currently working on her Master’s at the University of Tulsa. Her major influences are fiction, surrealism, and Trompe l’oeil — an art technique based on the use of realistic imagery to create the illusion of three dimensionality. For Arzamarski, forcing perspective in this way is less about achieving a sense of reality than it is playing with the very idea of what is real:

“When you believe in a trompe l’oeil painting, you are believing in nothing, and when that moment is broken, reality is questioned. This, in part, is its connection to surrealism. The play between the real and the unreal. Where there is an opportunity to question reality there is also an opportunity for the viewer to question themselves. Fiction plays at this slippage of reality. In a work of fiction, reality is concentrated. It is not naturalistic. All of the boring bits are cut out, and in rapid succession, events unfold. What the reader is left with are opportunities to find new understanding about reality in the work of fiction. The paintings are offering the viewer pieces parts that they, in turn, complete with their own experience.”

Check out more of Mel Arzamarski’s work below!