Prickly Flower 1936

M.C. Escher made this prickly flower of an image, maybe a woodcut, I'm not sure, sometime in his life, and with it, he dared to depict a bloom that is less than welcoming. Look at how each line, each tiny mark, is carefully considered. The contrasting black and white areas create a dance of light and shadow, giving the flower a strange, almost alien presence. The texture of the bloom, built from these intricate lines, is so tactile. I can almost feel the sharp points, the resistance to touch. And what about that radiant glow around the flower? It’s like the flower is both illuminated and radiating its own energy. Escher's love of pattern and structure reminds me of artists like Hilma af Klint, who sought to express the underlying order of the universe. And in doing so, reminding us that art can embrace contradiction and invite us to question what we think we know.