Dialogue by Mark:

A giraffe has a beautiful skin with yellow and tan spots all over. This natural camouflage helps protect the animal from predators by blending in to the dappled shade beneath tall African trees, where the giraffe loves to hang out and munch tender twigs.

The painting in our Masters' Gallery today is also spotted all over...not for camoflage, but for impact! It's from a style of art started in the 1060s called Op Art...short for "Optical Illusion." Our famous artist is Larry Poons and the name of his 1963 painting is "Orange Crush."

In Op Art paintings, artists often put colors next to each other in order to make the eyes of the viewer jump around, from one color to the next. It made the painting look like it was vibrating. Op Art artists invented all sorts of tricks for the eye...wavy lines, cris cross patterns, bright colors. Their goal was to make a design that felt like it was moving and shifting all the time. Don't you think the dots in this painting feel a bit like bubbles rising in a glass of Orange Crush soda pop?

A big optical thanks to Kim at KidsArt, and to the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York for this American masterpiece for Imagination Station.