Chrysanthemum 1916

This is M.C. Escher’s Chrysanthemum, rendered in black ink on paper. I imagine Escher slowly building this image through a delicate dance of addition and subtraction. It makes me wonder what it was like for Escher to create art so rooted in mathematical principles. Did he find it freeing or constraining? You know, I think artists are all magpies, borrowing and stealing, referencing and remixing. Escher tips his hat to the ancient traditions of Japanese and Chinese art with this simple floral study. Check out the texture of the ink. You can almost feel the roughness of the paper, the slight bleeding of the ink as it soaks in. The bold outlines define the shape of the leaves and petals, while the subtle shading gives depth and dimension. It is an ongoing exchange of ideas across time that inspires artists' creativity. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, and it allows for multiple interpretations.