Scilla, Calabria (January 1931) 1931

M.C. Escher made this lithograph, Scilla, Calabria, in January 1931, using crayons on stone. Imagine Escher perched on a hillside, squinting against the Mediterranean sun, trying to capture this impossible town. The way he’s built up the image from tiny marks, hatching and cross-hatching, like he’s knitting the town together, stone by stone. I love how the boats in the water appear to be floating on air, defying the laws of perspective, each little vessel an exercise in seeing what's in front of you and making it your own. Escher’s so known for his mind-bending paradoxes, but here, he’s just looking, rendering this vertiginous place. Yet, you see the same attention to detail, the same love of pattern and repetition that makes his later work so distinctive. It reminds me of Piranesi, all those vertiginous staircases leading nowhere. Artists have always borrowed, stolen, and riffed on each other’s ideas. It's a conversation across time, where the echoes of the past fuel the future.