"It is human nature to want to exchange ideas, and I believe that, at bottom, every artist wants no more than to tell the world what he has to say."

I came across a collection of M.C. Escher's work the other day and couldn't help flipping through it. Escher delighted me to no end when I was younger. I definitely checked out books of his art just to look at them. The absurd realism, the ability to create a sense of water or reflection with a pencil—it was all just so wonderful.

Escher said he wanted his work to "testify that we live in a beautiful and orderly world, not in a chaos without norms."



I was struck by a photograph of Escher and his wife. He looks so familiar, I thought. Then, a few pages later, I realized, he was the man in the glass ball.