Cartoons are a part of our lives that we take for granted . Snoopy is more recognizable than the Mona Lisa in some parts of the world .
INPERSON
A-mazing
Art
Penn Hills artist Joe Wos carves a niche with interactive mazes .
BY PAUL GLASSER
As a youngster , Joe Wos set out to create mazes that were more challenging , and he ’ s kept at it for more than 30 years . “ I love the tactile experience of drawing ,” he explains .
Wos was born in North Braddock but has lived in Penn Hills for almost 30 years with his wife and three children . Mazes were a popular form of entertainment when he was growing up during the 1970s . He enjoyed solving the mazes on the backs of cereal boxes and restaurant placemats — however , he thought they were too easy .
“ They were frustratingly simple ,” Wos laments . “ I love challenging myself .”
He started drawing more complex mazes and later was hired to draw caricatures at festivals and other events . Wos made $ 500 at his senior prom . “ I didn ’ t have a date , but that wasn ’ t so bad ,” he recalls . incorporated cartoons as part of the puzzle . He calls them MazeToons and his creations are published in newspapers across the country .
MazeToons present some unique challenges that create optical illusions . Wos likes to stump people by leaving a very small space between lines , because the human eye will automatically ignore the gap . In addition , Wos adds color to his illustrations , and the eye will sometimes interpret a color boundary as a solid line . A common trick for solving is to start at the end of the maze and work backward , but Wos thwarts that strategy by working backward . He eschews symmetry and tries to avoid creating illustrations that follow the same general pattern .
“ You have to learn how to see things in a way that breaks the normal rules and thought process ,” Wos explains .
No matter how skilled fans are , Wos always stumps them with a MazeToon on April 1 that ’ s impossible to solve .
Cartoons are a part of our lives that we take for granted . Snoopy is more recognizable than the Mona Lisa in some parts of the world .
Creating a maze is fun because it ’ s an interactive art form . “ It ’ s a work of art that isn ’ t complete until someone solves it ,” Wos explains . “ It ’ s one of the oldest interactive art forms .”
Teachers encouraged Wos to pursue his dreams of becoming an artist , and he began to create innovative mazes that
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