Imagine this: You're walking along the sidewalk one afternoon, enjoying your day and minding your own business.
Everything is totally normal, but then, out of nowhere, the sidewalk splits open right in front of you, revealing a vast subterranean cavern full of mysteriously glowing crystals and rivers leading down tunnels to points unknown.
You might be a bit surprised, no?
But if this happens, you're probably not actually teetering on the edge of an abyss. Most likely, you've come across one of the vast pieces of public art by Edgar Mueller.
Using a keen understanding of perspective and some serious artistic talent, he creates images that challenge perspective and shake up a boring sidewalk.
We've seen artwork that seems to reach right up off the paper at us, but Mueller's work seems to drop down — like, way down — and turns a regular walkway into something right out of a fantasy action movie.
A self-taught artist, Mueller creates street art full-time, and has been doing so since the age of 25. He's traveled all over Europe and beyond, creating images that make the world a little more magical. Check out some of them below, and hang on!
Mueller creates these massive, eye-fooling images on sidewalks, patios, and other public walking surfaces, disrupting the everyday and turning the everyday world magical.
His creations suggest that just under the surface of our world, there's one full of mystery and adventure waiting.
And even though you know consciously that these are paintings, you still do a double-take!
This one has to be real, right?
Nope! It's a painting. But here, Edgar's incorporated a very real rock formation into the piece for some extra mind-bending.
In reality, that rock formation is behind the painting's surface, but the painting makes it look like it's right in the middle!
Mueller is a self-taught artist who was first inspired to create by the beautiful natural landscapes of his native western Germany. He went on to create large-scale public works, often of classical paintings.
This chalk rendition of Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus gained him international attention, and soon he was creating street art full-time all over Europe.
He also became fascinated with challenging perceptions of space by playing with extreme perspectives and optical illusions. What's more, his paintings also involve the public, who become part of the piece as they walk across it.
Mueller likes street art because the public can interact with it directly, and it helps people see the world in a slightly different way.
The person in this picture is simply standing on the sidewalk, but thanks to Edgar's mural, they appear to be teetering at the edge of a precipice over a river full of strange creatures. It's all about how you look at it!
Thanks to his vibrant imagination, everyday places are transformed into fantastical, alien worlds full of mystery and wonder.
Check out this video to see Mueller and his team in action, creating a glacial crevasse in the middle of a road. It's pretty impressive!
You can see much more of Mueller's work on his website (he's really prolific!), as well as on Facebook.
And if you know someone who's feeling a bit bored with the everyday landscape, SHARE this incredible, fantastical art with them to brighten their day!
