M.C. Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher (17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972), usually referred to as M. C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture, and tessellations.

His artistic expression was created from images in his mind, rather than directly from observations and travels to other countries. Well known examples of his work also include Drawing Hands, a work in which two hands are shown, each drawing the other.

The reason I chose Escher as one of the artists is because his work doesn't focus on the drawing itself, but the way your mind responds to them. He specialises with illusions and impossible structures which are all about confusing the viewer into trying to figure out how that illusion works.

My first impression of this artist was that he was a genius in creating patterns. His first works I saw were the drawings of shapes that would fit between one another leaving no gaps between. I looked deeper into this artist to seek meaning behind his work and found inspiration for this project.

The artist uses pencil to create tonal drawings of impossible structures. The main formal elements are tone, shape and pattern which the artist uses o create depth in his drawings and makes parts of it stand out giving them a 3D effect. This technique helps him create the illusions such as the "Waterfall" from 1961 where the artist creates an effect where the top of a bridge connects to the buttom of the building in a straight zig zag line.

Eschers work links to my research about illusions. This artist didn't use lights in order to create such illusions; however I'm only looking at how he caused the images to trigger your brain into thinking of how to make sense out of an impossible structure. As a responce, I want to explore if I can achieve a similar effect using lights such as glow sticks.

(Waterfall - 1961