Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972), better known as M.C. Escher, was one of the world's most famous graphic artists. His work has been a major influence in the way I approach graphic design. He didn't consider himself to be an artist, rather more of a mathematician. To me he truly was an artist though. Before he started creating mind-bending optical illusions and impossible structures within his artwork he created some beautiful images (below). Click on any picture to make it larger.
He created these images while traveling around Italy by freight ships. He would sketch the port towns while the ship was docked. While doing this he met his wife, Jetta (pictured below), and they settled in Rome. He traveled around Italy for another 11 years making sketches that he would later make into lithographs and woodcuts.
Escher became captivated by regular division of the plane, which is based on the principle of tessellation, and started experimenting with it in his drawings. This is where most of his well-known work comes from (pictured below).
M.C. Escher's work has appeared in pop culture as well. Below is M.C. Escher's original work called "Relativity" and a lego re-creation of it.
In the beginning of the movie "Labyrinth" by Jim Henson a poster of Relativity appears on the wall in Sarah's bedroom. Later in the movie Relativity comes to life as Sarah is trying to rescue her baby brother. For those of you who haven't seen Labyrinth it's a movie starring David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, and a bunch of muppets. What are you waiting for, go rent it! But finish reading this post first :)
To wrap this up I will leave you with my favorite M.C. Escher piece. It's titled "Belvedere". It appears to be normal at first, but study it for awhile and you'll find something interesting. Click the picture below to make it larger.
That's all for today! Visit the official M.C. Escher site here and see over 250 of M.C. Escher's works in the Picture Gallery.
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