The Liguria Bakery: A Dog and Phony Show

On a recent visit to San Francisco, my wife and I stayed in North Beach at the Washington Square Inn. One morning, my wife looked out the window and saw two dogs patiently waiting on the sidewalk. A few minutes later, she went over to pet the dogs.

The dogs were remarkably calm! Looking at them close up reveals why.

These amazing dogs have been drawn onto the side wall of the Liguria Bakery (great focaccia) at 1700 Stockton St.

Trompe l'œil
These dogs are a good example of trompe l’œil, which is French for ‘deceive the eye’. It is an art technique that creates an optical illusion so that depicted objects appear in 3D.

One of the greatest practitioners of trompe d'œil is the pavement chalk artist, Julian Beever. Here’s his chalk drawing entitled, Eiffel Tower Sand Sculpture. If you look carefully at the drawing, you can see the lines in the sidewalk.

Notice that the artist is standing in the distance, giving the appearance that he’s actually standing on top of the sculpture.

Here’s another chalk drawing, entitled, Make Poverty History. Again, the artist is standing in the distance, making it seem as if he’s standing on top of the earth.

If you were to view this chalk drawing from the side, you’d see how distorted it is. Yes, it’s the distortion that creates the optical illusion.