Oostpoort 1939

This is Oostpoort, a woodcut by M.C. Escher made in 1930, and looking at it, I can imagine Escher carefully carving away at the woodblock, making each precise mark. The image is a study in contrasts – black and white, light and shadow. The artist coaxes textures from the wood, from the rippling water, to the brickwork of the gate, to the leafy trees, and the sharp lines of the sky above. The architecture has an almost dreamlike quality, poised somewhere between reality and the imagined, much like my own paintings. I can feel the artist's hand in the final print. I think about how all artists are in conversation, each of us responding to what came before, building on it, pushing against it, and how our own experiences shape what we create. We’re all trying to make sense of the world, one brushstroke, or carve at a time.