Untitled Document

Patrick Hughes was born in Birmingham, England in 1939. Hughes attended a training college to become an English teacher. He later decided to become an artist after taking a basic design course in college. Hughes' paintings carry influence of surrealist M.C. Escher as well as abstract artist Paul Klee, visible in the way he plays with perspective, optical illusions, and figure-ground relationships. He admired Klee’s system of organizing space first and deciding what it represents second. Hughes challenges the viewer with his relief paintings. At first glance they appear to be flat, but the closer one approaches these paintings, the more three dimensional they become. By challenging our preconceived notions regarding perspective, the viewer experiences the "paradox."

“My philosophy is paradox. I am of a logical cast of mind, and find common sense hopeless. Philosophers have found paradox cropping up at the crux of every enquiry, and have tried to explain away this vicious circularity. I embrace the contradictory and celebrate the paradoxical. A paradox to me is like a pearl. I hope people remember my earlier work - The Space Ruler, Infinity, Sunshine, The Endless Snakes, Prison Rainbow - I had some very good ideas, refined ideas. But I was telling people about paradox With reverse perspective I am letting the viewer experience a paradoxical relation between the self and the work of art.”