Flor de Pascua - Convention 1921

This monochrome print by M.C. Escher shows a figure against a backdrop of vertical lines. The stark black and white, the hard contrasts, suggest an interest in optical play, in visual tricks. I can imagine Escher, bent over his work, carefully carving the image into a block of wood, each line precise, each curve deliberate. What was he thinking? Was he lost in the possibilities of geometry? Was he trying to trick us, to make us question what we see? The figure here is so interesting: a baby smoking, that’s convention for you. The dark lines surrounding the figure remind me of the way that cartoonists like Art Spiegelman use simple lines to great effect. There's a dialogue happening here between line, form, and maybe even meaning. Escher isn't just showing us an image. He's inviting us into a game, a puzzle, a meditation on how we see and understand the world. And that's a conversation I’m always happy to join.