A Different Perspective

Our house in West Virginia is about 150 miles from our house in Maryland. Depending on traffic, if we stop to eat and how many potty stops we have to make for the dogs and me, it’s about a three-hour drive each way. Some people would call that crazy. We’re used to it. We do, however, like to switch up the routes every now and then. We do this primarily to avoid traffic, but we both enjoy the change of scenery.

One of the more-pleasant routes we use takes us through Shepherdstown, West Virginia and Boonsboro, Maryland.

Unfortunately, we’ve never actually stopped to explore either town because the girls are always with us. Both seem like pretty nice places. We also go through Sharpsburg, Keedysville and Middletown in Maryland. On the West Virginia side, there’s Kearneysville and Leetown.

Small towns are cool. They have character.You never know what you’ll see, like this lady and her dog randomly greeting passersby through their window.

Okay, maybe the lady and her dog aren’t real. But I think they are awesome. They are painted on the back of Vesta Pizza in Boonsboro at the intersection of MD-34 and US-40.

This painting technique is known as trompe-l’oeil. That’s French and essentially means “trick the eye.”

Here’s another view of the same building from a slightly wider angle.

I don’t know when the painting was done exactly, but it’s been within the last year. The Google Maps street view stills shows the unadorned building.

Hubby told me to make sure I got the cat laying in the sun at the back door, so here it is.

The trompe-l’oeil (pronounced “tromp-lou-e”) technique has been around since the Renaissance. If I’d paid attention during History in high school, I could probably tell you when that was.

Google trompe-l’oeil and you’ll see a very wide and interesting variety of examples, such as:

• Grandma Reads to Polar Bear
• Melted Building
• Ornate Ceiling Medallion
• Floor advertisement
• Gothic cathedral ceiling (most amazing of all)

I’m not sure if you can see this next one without being a Flickr member, but we’ll try. In this picture of St. Paul’s Cathedral, you can see the trompe-l’oeil facade employed during renovation.

Sorry, I didn’t set out to make this post an art diatribe. I just wanted to share a few nice Boonsboro pictures. But the more I looked, the more I learned and the more images I discovered, which of course I had to share.

Anyway… the next time you drive through Boonsboro, don’t forget to look at the back wall of the Vesta Pizza building.