Thursday, August 4, 1998

East Village:
New Wave Of Creativity 
  "The movement is toward gift and antiques shops," said Jonathan Bressler, who opened the Trompe L'Oeil Shop, at 506 East 13th Street, between Avenue A and Avenue B, in June. "I've been doing faux finishes for six years, "said the 29-year-old Mr. Bressler of the work on display in the small showroom cum shop.  There, the walls are a three dimensional sample book of different glazing and painting finishes.  The egg and dart molding has been gilded and the floor has been painted a blue and green trompe l'oeil design.  Depending on the intricacy of the design, Mr. Bressler charges between $5 and $20 a square foot for faux finishing jobs in a client's home or office.  Mr. Bressler also buys old pieces of furniture and overhauls them.  An imposing Depression-era cabinet, for example, has been gold-leafed and glazed.  "I transformed it into something totally different," said Mr. Bressler, who is selling the cabinet for $1,250.   An  Art Deco wall sconce, in the shape of a nine-foot-tall Egyptian pharaoh and resurfaced in gold, silver and aluminum leaf, leans against the wall.  "It's from the 20's," he said of the $3,500 sconce.  "But I wanted to give it a more antique patina."  Although the old doors, tin ceiling and rough walls in Mr. Bressler's shop have been given a new paint job, they still look old and crumbly.  "I like to preserve antiquity," he said.  "Half of New York is as old as this place." Mr. Bressler also has a predilection for painting gusts and statues and for creating canvas wall murals in which the image-Michelangelo's David is a favorite subject-is made up of a collage of old mattress fabrics.  "They throw out a lot of mattresses in this neighborhood," he said.  Jonathan Bressler, the owner of the Trompe L'Oeil Shop, in front of a canvas hanging he created from mattress fabrics.