Architectural Details Corpus Christi, TX Over 50 years of combined experience in concept design and execution of Murals, Trompe l’oeil, and Faux Finishes.

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Introducing Patrick Richards in A.D. 2000 The vision of Patrick Richards and his emerging studio known as 2000 A.D. or 2000 Architectural Details is to transmute homes and offices into works of art. Architectural Details has built a reputation for its amazing ability to trompe l’oeil or “fool the eye”. The elaborate effects created by this particular art form have created a renaissance of fine art in fine homes. After an eventful youth spent traveling and living in eight countries on five continents, Patrick began his career in Trompe l’oeil as an apprentice painter on a Richard Haas project in Huntsville,Texas where he also garnered an art degree from Sam Houston State University. He was personally trained by Steve Baratta, a prominent artist in Portland, Oregon who specializes in exterior Trompe l’oeil. The project in Huntsville’s downtown illustrates the ability of this art form to transform using only paint. At this time Patrick learned the art of “fooling the eye” as traditional buildings went through a metamorphosis and emerged as facsimiles of the original architectural design with the use of perspective and shadow wrought through careful color selection. The art of Trompe l’oeil began around 500 B.C. within the Roman civilization. Michel Hervieu, a French artist with 20 years of experience in this form of expression believes that this art was a result of the sophistication of the culture prevalent at the time. The art was lost around 700 A.D. amid the superstitious suppression that plunged creative expression of all kinds into the Dark Ages. It reemerged in Venice and Florence, remnants of the older Roman civilization to become an avant gard for the Renaissance movement. Michel believes that the art of illusionistic painting, which creates a 3- dimensional illusion on a 2-dimensional surface, helped to increase the people’s consciousness by creating an illusion that required a perception born of the marriage of the mind and the eye. In the beauty of the illusion lies the truth. Michel feels that Trompe l’oeil will “wake the spirit” or inspire people. The ironic fact is that through time the form has had a cycle of emergence and then resurrection after near extinction. As previously mentioned the Dark Ages were a terrible time for the arts in general, but following a brief blossoming during the Renaissance Trompe l’oeil has again gradually diminished in importance through time since illusion of all types are frowned upon by the more rationalist approach of the world view spawned by the Industrial Revolution and mechanization. With the advent of geometry and the use of the phi proportion in works of art during the Renaissance period Trompe l’oeil became a science and thus gained a meticulous understanding of perspective which has been carefully nurtured by contemporary schools such as the institute specializing in Trompe l’oeil that Michel attended near Paris. Patrick believes that his studio of artists can aid this burgeoning movement currently blossoming again around the world, especially in the United State. As Michel puts it “what better name for a place than Corpus Christi for the third renaissance of Trompe l’oeil.” With artists like Michel Hervieu and Steve Baratta giving able assistance and Patrick’s flair for the innovative within a traditional style, Architectural Details has returned to its distant origins once again to enter the interiors of structures. With beautiful illusions, Patrick and Architectural Details can transform a house by traversing the mysteries of time and space. These wondrous creations can have you believing that your home or office has moved to classical times, constructed by craftsmen with classical materials. Or perhaps you could realize the openness of a mountain meadow in the comfort of your own living room. The possibilities are within your imagination and like the sorcerers of old, Patrick and his studio of artists can bring your dreams to life in the present moment. As the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard said of Trompe l’oeil: “Its not the illusion that hides the truth, it’s the truth that hides in the illusion.” Patrick Richards and Architectural Details are here to present the truth.