Hey! Look again!

THE best art looks the simplest. The best artists seem to do their work with effortless ease - just as the best athletes perform athletic feats with such grace that you, watching them, feel certain you could do the same. Artists work for years - just as athletes train and practice every day - to perfect their craft, their ability to execute their art without anyone's being able to see how hard they've had to work to do what they do.

They work for years, shaping and refining ideas so that when the viewer sees them, he accepts them without second thought as being ``real'' - or is startled and delighted by an insight or by the aptness of the way an idea is presented.

Every now and then artists give in to the impulse to hint at the fact that there's more happening in a painting than the person looking at the painting may immediately see. It's their way of saying: ``Hey, look again! This time I decided to let you glimpse just how much is going on in this painting.''

And sometimes artists just want to show they've got a sense of humor. For example, they paint a blank wall to look like a construction site.

So look again on this page. What do you see?