We've all seen optical illusions that fooled our eyes, but how often have we seen it on someone's face? Mimi Choi, a makeup artist based in Vancouver, transforms her own face into mind-boggling images that resemble Surrealist paintings. Even when you look closely at the photos, it's difficult to tell how she pulls off these visual tricks.
Mimi Choi's imagination appears to have no bounds when it comes to creating new looks, sometimes humorous, sometimes whimsical, and occasionally a little scary. In each one, she takes the time to carefully paint over her face in realistic ways, and she uses the background to help enhance the effect of her illusions. Mimi Choi, for example, posted an image of herself removing the last slice of her brain on "Pie Day". The rest of her head is painted to blend into the blue sky wallpaper behind her, allowing the viewer to focus on the last piece of "pie."
Many of her makeup looks are inspired by her experiences with sleep paralysis, a condition in which the person's mind is awake but their body is temporarily unresponsive while waking. "During these bouts, she has experiences vivid and often frightening visions that have inspired many of her morbid and distorted face looks," the artist's website says. Choi's other muses include striking patterns, photoshopped art, and other artists such as Salvador Dali and M.C. Escher, whose influence can be seen in the dreamy aspects of her work.
Selena Mattei