White Cat II 1919

M.C. Escher made this black ink woodcut of a sleepy cat, its outline barely visible against the stark dark ground. You know, the wonderful thing about prints, is they require such clarity of decision-making. Every mark counts. I like imagining Escher carving away at the wood, carefully considering each line, like when I'm trying to edit a painting. What to keep, what to cut away? I imagine he found himself empathizing with this white cat's quiet contemplation. That low vantage point, we're at eye level with the cat, puts us in a strangely intimate position. What is it looking at? And what did Escher want us to see? It’s so simple, this image, yet it invites so many questions about how we see, how we understand, and how we imagine. Ultimately, artists like Escher are in an ongoing conversation, inspiring each other's creativity, playing with ideas across time.