Drop 1948

M.C. Escher made this lithograph, "Drop," and it seems to me to have emerged from such intense looking. I imagine Escher carefully layering the tones to build up the leaf's crinkled surface and the dark, velvety background. And then that perfect, lens-like droplet. It’s like he's playing with seeing itself. I wonder if he felt like he was shrinking down, becoming an ant on that leaf, completely absorbed in this miniature world. What does it feel like, I wonder, to see the world turned upside down? Escher’s the master of the impossible, right? But here, he captures a fleeting, real-world phenomenon, and it makes you question everything you think you know. It's as if he's saying, "Hey, perception is flexible." And that's a thought that’s sustained many artists and thinkers throughout time.