Chico State Alum/World-Renowned Mural Artist John Pugh to Sign Books and Give Illustrated Talk Sept. 8
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 30, 2006
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Joe DiMaggio
School of the Arts
530-898-5739
Chico State Alum/World-Renowned Mural Artist John Pugh to Sign Books and Give Illustrated Talk Sept. 8
Chico State alum and world-renowned artist John Pugh has created more than 200 large-scale murals across the United States, New Zealand, and Taiwan and is considered to be the leading trompe l'oeil muralist in the world. The Murals of John Pugh, the first-ever collection of Pugh's work, showcases 35 of his most famous pieces, discusses how he revitalized the trompe l'oeil ("trick of the eye") genre into a vital mode of artistic expression, and illuminates the artist's creative process from sketch to finished mural.
Pugh's career began as a student at CSU, Chico with the famous Taylor Hall mural. He was honored as the College of Humanities and Fine Arts' Distinguished Alum in 2003. He returned to Chico that summer and spent a week refurbishing the mural, much to the delight of Chicoans who visited him long into the hot summer nights as he repainted the wall.
He and author Kevin Bruce will launch his new book in Chico on September 8. There will be an illustrated talk in Ayres Hall 106 at 4 p.m. with a reception honoring them both at the Taylor Hall Mural.
Throughout his twenty-five-year career as a trompe l'oeil muralist, 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 frot 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."
The trompe l'oeil murals of John Pugh are not merely ornamental or curiously clever; they are thought-provoking, substantial, even spiritual. The creation of Drain, a visual representation of Los Angeles's infamous water wars of the early 1900s, generated emotional responses from the city's citizens, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the international media and is a perfect example of the power of public art to arouse passion and engage communities.
The Murals of John Pugh illustrates how, within a framework of artfully rendered illusionary space, this pioneering artist orchestrates layers of historical, social, and mythical commentary that challenge the viewer to find deeper layers of meaning.
Pugh has been painting murals since the late 1970s. He has received numerous public and private commissions in the United States, Taiwan, and New Zealand, and currently works in a specially constructed mural studio in Los Gatos, California. Visit the website for more information.
Bruce is a writer and Stanford-educated art historian who wrote his master's thesis on the works of John Pugh. He is currently chronicling the history of the contemporary mural. He lives in Saratoga, California.
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