John Pugh
As far as feedback is concerned, the most common question I get is - how do you find these matches? I’ve gone into it a little more in my most recent posts but I figured I should document a match from start to finish - whether it’s a “good” match or not!
So, here we go:
WHAT TO MATCH:
First things first, what do I want to match? There’s plenty of options here in Sacramento so I basically went for the first mural that came to mind: John Pugh’s snake mural off J Street. The piece is a fairly new one - it was painted during Wide Open Walls in 2018.
Stylistically the piece can be described as trompe l’oeil, which means “to fool the eye” in French. The snakes literally look like they are about to jump out at you - which is not exactly the best scenario one could imagine! But in all seriousness, the hyper-real piece is stunning and incredibly well done. While the subject isn’t exactly my favorite - I wouldn’t say I LOVE snakes ha! - I think the mural is masterfully painted and it’s conveniently located in Downtown, Sacramento, which is close to my work.
FINDING THE OUTFIT:
Now this is the part that everyone wants to know - how I find the match. It’s really not rocket science, I swear. I just am 10000 times more patient than most people when it comes to finding a piece of clothing that will match a piece of art, that’s really all it comes down to. So, I do my typical googling and thankfully these search terms are pretty straight forward: “snake print dress.”
From there I narrow down the options to what I think looks closest to the mural itself. There are a ton of snake print dresses out there, let me tell you, but there was really only one that stood out to me because of its palette and patterning. I went the “Sea Snake Mini Dress” from Fashion Nova.
SHOOTING THE MATCH:
Once the dress arrives I then beg my sister Natalie to go with me to shoot the match. Just kidding. She enjoys it too!
We get there and the lighting is totally off and at this point I know not to force it. It’s not worth it and we decide to come back at a better time.
We return at a suitable hour and the sun is in a great spot - no shadows on the mural and I’m in full shade too but with great ambient light. I’ve mentioned that while I’m comfortable in front of the camera, I’m definitely not moving around like a supermodel. It’s awkward, hilarious, and it takes us several “moves” to figure out how I should stand and what we should do. Being in a super-tight dress did not help with any of the aforementioned!
EDITING THE MATCH:
From there I return home to look at the shots and assess. I’ll typically weed out 98% of the images and will let the few I’ve starred kind of sit there so I can go back to them to see if those truly are the best shots.
Then I’ll edit whatever needs to be edited - typically lighting, exposure, those kinds of details. I have had to edit entire vehicles out of my shots before so sometimes I’ll spend a few hours doing something tricky like that, but for 9/10 matches the editing takes less than 10 minutes. In this case I mostly adjusted the contrast and curves.
VOILA. We have our match.
About The Artist
“For more than three decades, world-renowned trompe l’oeil artist John Pugh has engaged and captivated the public with large-scale mural projects in spaces across the world, including San Francisco, Miami, and New York, as well as Taiwan, Mexico, and New Zealand. His “trick of the eye” murals cleverly fool the viewer into seeing a modern facade’s broken wall revealing Greek columns or a woman reading in a cafe. But Pugh’s paintings also capture the imagination and engage the mind. Within a framework of artfully rendered illusionary space, he orchestrates layers of historical, social, and mythical commentary that challenge the viewer to find deeper levels of meaning.
With a body of work now exceeding 200 murals, Pugh has been instrumental in revitalizing the trompe l’oeil genre, turning it into a legitimate and vital mode of artistic expression that is both aesthetically and intellectually challenging. In Pugh’s own words, ‘It can link people together, stimulate a sense of pride within the community, and introduce the viewer to new ideas and perspectives.'” - Kevin Bruce
