The Empty Bottle

An old-fashioned glass bottle sits alone on a bit of exposed brick in this trompe l'oeil mural under the overpass on Broadway at Orange Street.

More on the mural: Lost Glasses

Lost Glasses

There's a wonderful trompe l'oeil mural tucked under an overpass on Broadway near Orange Street.

The painting cleverly makes it appear as if the concrete wall has cracked away to reveal another wall of bricks which in turn reveals a a plaster wall which then exposes wood framing and a gray masonry wall. Along the way, little things are revealed...a border of delicate blue and white Dutch tiles, an empty bottle of light green glass perched on a jutting brick, a pair of antique books, and the pair of old-fashioned spectacles show above.

It's the work of Albany Mural, a company whose illusionist art appears throughout downtown Albany...including the Maiden Lane pedestrian bridge and the facade of the Albany Public Library's main branch.

For more on Albany Mural, take a look at their site.

http://albanymural.com/trompe_loeil_public_art

Art on the Maiden Lane Bridge

When the Maiden Lane pedestrian bridge opened to connect downtown Albany with the Hudson River waterfront, I wasn't too interested. At the time, I wasn't too fond of the Corning Preserve, mainly because my primary memory of the park was of watching scores of dead fish float downstream one evening.

Eventually, though, I did go back to the Preserve and did make use of the Maiden Lane walkway. The bridge is decorated with trompe l'oeil artwork. Each painting is a still-life representing the history of the region, beginning with the prehistoric and continuing to the present. The one shown above, representing the region's Native American heritage, is one of my favorites. It depicts fresh squash, a piece of pottery, and a powerful symbol of the Haudenosaunee...the Hiawatha wampum belt

Next time you walk across the bridge from Broadway to the River, stop and look at the paintings.