Lion Bleu

Look closely at this image. Focus on the blue parts. Did your screen suddenly turn 3-dimensional?

'Lion Bleu' is a bold piece that plays with color and how we see things. There's no actual lion in the picture, just red and blue shapes divided by black lines. But when you look at it, your mind puts the shapes together to make the image of a lion. This happens because of a trick our brains do called Gestalt – it's our brain's way of taking bits and pieces and turning them into a complete picture.

The colors in 'Lion Bleu' can seem to pop out at you because of something called chromostereopsis. Whether the red or blue seems closer can change from person to person. To see this for yourself, you can try this:

1.Look at the art in a room that's not too bright.
2. To make the blue stand out, cover the sides of your eyes near your temples with your hands or some paper.
3. To see the red jump forward, cover the inner sides of your eyes, near your nose. (Check out 'Lion Rouge' to see an image that works best with red in front.)
4. Stand back a bit. Sometimes the farther away you are, the stronger the effect.

This trick of the eyes is pretty neat, and it's about how our eyes bend light differently for different colors, which makes our brains think there's depth where there isn't.

'Lion Bleu' is part of a 2-lion series, red and blue. This one works best for people who naturally perceive blue to be popping out.