Old Lava From Mount Etna Near Bronte, Sicily 1933

M.C. Escher made this print of Old Lava From Mount Etna in Sicily, and what strikes me is the way the shapes seem to build themselves out of lines. It’s a very specific, almost architectural kind of mark-making. The texture is unreal – like he’s building with tiny bricks of ink. You can almost feel the crunch of the lava underfoot. It’s all grey scale, but there are a million shades in there, right? Just look at the way he handles the rocks in the foreground, how he uses these short, choppy lines to give them weight and substance. It’s like he's turning solid matter into pure graphic energy. I'm thinking of Piranesi, who made these amazing etchings of imaginary prisons. Both artists use line in a way that’s both precise and totally wild. It reminds you that art is a conversation, constantly evolving. We see what we see, and then we build on it.