• About Us
    • Advertise
      • Sizes & Specs
    • Previous Issues
    • Submissions
    • Scene Team
      • Contact Us
  • Scene Lately
    • Downtown Scene
    • North Side Scene
    • South Side Scene
  • Calendar
    • #EventsToBeScene
    • Events We Are Excited About
    • Theatre Events
  • Printables
  • Subscribe
  • Reader Survey

Abilene Scene

Art, Culture & Happenings in Abilene, Texas!

  • Abilene Eats
    • Abilene Eats Out
    • Abilene Eats In
  • Artfully Abilene
    • Center for Contemporary Art
    • The Grace
    • NCCIL
    • Paramount
    • Philharmonic
  • Featured Stories
    • Culture
    • Fake Your Way
    • Health
    • Travel
    • Business
  • People
    • Abilene Influencers
    • Abilene Influencer Nomination
    • Day in the Life
    • Everyday Heroes
  • Homes
    • Abilene Open Houses
    • A Look Inside
    • Lawn & Garden
    • DIY
  • New On The Scene
  • Shopping
  • Restaurants
You are here: Home / Artfully Abilene / NCCIL: Mind Benders

NCCIL: Mind Benders

March 27, 2013 Leave a Comment

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature (NCCIL) is a vital and integral part of Abilene’s Downtown District, bringing award winning artwork from children’s picture books to the community. The first and only museum of its kind in the country, the NCCIL exhibits, tours, collects and preserves original art from the finest children’s literature.

This June the NCCIL will celebrate the arrival of Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos & Toys in the Attic, also the centerpiece of this year’s Children’s Art and Literacy Festival. More than 38 million copies of Walter Wick’s books have been sold worldwide. Best known for his search-and-find photographs, he is the author, creator, and photographer of the Can You See What I See? Series, and is also the co-creator and photographer of the I Spy books. Wick has also authored and photographed two other award winning science books, A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder and Walter Wick’s Optical Tricks.

As part of the opening festivities, we are excited to announce the OpArt Contest. Op art, also known as optical art, is a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions. An optical illusion is always characterized by visually perceived images that are deceptive or misleading. Optical illusions can be literal (a flock of birds flying the sky), at times physiological (like the grid illusion), or cognitive (like the Curious Cube or the Tricky Triangle). When looking at a piece of Op art, the viewer is often left with an impression of some movement, hidden images, flashing, vibration, patterns or swelling and/ or warping of the drawn object. This contest, open to all elementary, middle, and high school students, will celebrate the optical illusions created in Wick’s books.

Each school will submit three finalists per grade to the NCCIL by April 30th and the NCCIL’s panel of judges will score all the submitted entries. Two finalists from each grade level will be selected and the winning art will be displayed at the NCCIL during a special reception at ArtWalk on May 9th at 6:30pm. For more information, please call Sujata Shahane at 325-673-4586 or email sshahane@nccil.org.

2013 Summer Art Camps registration is now open! Visit www.nccil.org or stop by the NCCIL to register your child for an unforgettable week of art, books and fun!

The NCCIL is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00am to 4:00pm and every Saturday we offer a free children’s art activity in our art studio from 1-4pm. Admission to the NCCIL is always free thanks to the generosity of our members! Visit our website, www.nccil.org, for more information on upcoming events and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to see the latest sales and special offers in our NCCIL bookstore!

Curious Cube: How curious it is! We see this cube in a way that it can’t be true. This type of illusion is called Impossible Cube Illusion. The illusion plays on the human eye’s interpretation of two-dimensional pictures as three-dimensional objects.
Curious Cube: How curious it is! We see this cube in a way that it can’t be true. This type of illusion is called Impossible Cube Illusion. The illusion plays on the human eye’s interpretation of two-dimensional pictures as three-dimensional objects.
Phantom of the forest: Turn this picture upside down to find a common animal that lives in the wood! This type of illusion is very similar to the illusion called the Kanizsa Triangle, an optical illusion that perceives a white equilateral when none is drawn. (It’s a deer!)
Phantom of the forest: Turn this picture upside down to find a common animal that lives in the wood! This type of illusion is very similar to the illusion called the Kanizsa Triangle, an optical illusion that perceives a white equilateral when none is drawn. (It’s a deer!)

 

A soldier guards a mysterious ruin! At the bottom are three pillars, when he looks up…  Yikes! Can what he guards be real? This type of illusion is called the Blivet, and is often called an impossible object, where the object appears to have three cylindrical prongs at one end which then mysteriously transform into two rectangular prongs at the other end.
A soldier guards a mysterious ruin! At the bottom are three pillars, when he looks up… Yikes! Can what he guards be real? This type of illusion is called the Blivet, and is often called an impossible object, where the object appears to have three cylindrical prongs at one end which then mysteriously transform into two rectangular prongs at the other end.
A yellow triangle with a peculiar twist! This is a type of a paradox illusion generated by objects that are impossible such as this Penrose triangle. The triangle is an illusion based on our cognitive misunderstanding that adjacent edges must join!
A yellow triangle with a peculiar twist! This is a type of a paradox illusion generated by objects that are impossible such as this Penrose triangle. The triangle is an illusion based on our cognitive misunderstanding that adjacent edges must join!

 

Filed Under: Artfully Abilene, NCCIL Tagged With: featured, nccil, OpArt, Optical Illusions, Optical Tricks, Walter Wick

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sign Up for Scene Now!

Subscribe: Newsletter | Magazine

May/June 2025

Abilene Influencers

Read the full issue of Abilene Scene online by clicking the cover image above.

Connect with us online.

Facebook spacer Twitter spacer Instagram spacer Pinterest

Recent Posts

Phase 1 of New Storybook Garden Will Debut at CALF

Empowering the Next Generation

Frontier Texas Celebrates Grand Reopening

Graduation Celebration

Feel Worth, Fuel Purpose, Find Hope

Abilene Scene

3457 Curry Lane
Abilene, TX 79606
325.673.4822
abilenescene@zacpubs.com

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Cookie Policy

Cookie Policy

Categories

© 2025 · Zachry Publications