Life Force 1919

M.C. Escher created ‘Life Force’ using ink. It's a black and white fantasy, a world of swirling forms. I imagine him patiently inking these forms, pushing and pulling to shape a scene that's part natural and part dream. There’s a tension in how Escher uses stark lines and sharp contrast to convey the softness of petals. I picture him, head bent close to the paper, thinking about growth, energy, and the hidden structures of life. He would have been so focused on how the image came into being, shifting and emerging with each delicate line. You see echoes of other artists in his work, especially those, like Ernst Haeckel, who found beauty in the natural world, in forms that reveal the patterns of life itself. What Life Force communicates is a feeling for the mystery of it all, a kind of awe. Artists like Escher are in conversation across time, each inspiring the others, reminding us there are multiple ways of seeing and knowing.