Virtual Refrigerator - M.C. Escher

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Welcome to another edition of the Virtual Refrigerator! This weekly blog hop is co-hosted by A Glimpse of Our Life, Homeschool Coffee Break, and Every Bed of Roses. We all cordially invite you to add your link sharing the art that's on your Virtual Refrigerator and then hop over to the other blogs and admire what's on their Fridges!

  

August's Art Challenge: Modern Art
During the month of August, I have been sharing some short studies of a few modern artists and our projects inspired by their work. We'd be especially interested in seeing your modern art themed projects as well, so be sure to link them at the bottom of this post! (ICYMI: Week One was Piet Mondrian; Week Two was Gustav Klimt; and Week Three was Alexander Calder.)

Coming in September and October...
 During September and October, our other Virtual Fridge hostesses will be bringing us their artist studies. Next week A Glimpse of Our Life will be focusing on Eric Carle. Keep an eye out for more studies to follow!

M.C. Escher (1898-1972) was a Dutch graphic artist known for his art tessellations, optical illusion drawings, and perspective artwork. In fact, he used tessellations to create the illusions! He is famous for his "impossible structures" such as the one shown in the the lithograph "Relativity" (See it here: Relativity lattice on WikiArt). Escher portrayed mathematical relationships among shapes, figures, and space in his many woodcuts and lithographs. His work features black-and-white interlocking figures, mirror images, and geometric grids. Interestingly, although his work shows strong mathematical components, he didn't have training in mathematics; his understanding of the subject was mainly visual and intuitive.

I try in my prints to testify that we live in a beautiful and orderly world, not in a chaos without norms, even though that is how it sometimes appears.My subjects are also often playful: I cannot refrain from demonstrating the nonsensicalness of some of what we take to be irrefutable certainties. It is, for example, a pleasure to deliberately mix together objects of two and three dimensions, surface and spatial relationships, and to make fun of gravity.        Are you sure that a floor cannot also be a ceiling? Are you absolutely certain that you go up when you walk up a staircase?  Can you be definite that it is impossible to eat your cake and have it? ~M.C. Escher

A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again, without any gaps or overlaps. Escher's interest in tessellation was inspired by his visit to the Alhambra and other sites in Spain that featured tessellated mosaic tiles.

tiles in Alhambra

Kennady wanted to make a tessellation design, but we didn't have a lot of time this week. We found these step-by-step instructions, which she used to make this cat design.

The shapes are exactly the same, and line up perfectly, top to bottom of each and left to right of each. Then Kennady drew in the details and gave each cat a different expression and color.

Tessellated Cats by KAT, 2015

Another well-known piece of art from M.C. Escher is a close-up study of an eye. (see it here: Eye on WikiArt) In his original, you can see a head reflected in the dark pupil of the eye. Kennady did a pencil study of an eye, but she declined to put the reflection in. This time. Since Escher did several pieces showing reflections in a sphere, including some self-portraits (like this one: Hand with Reflecting Sphere on WikiArt), Kennady wants to try that sometime as well.

Eye by KAT, 2015

The ideas that are basic to [my work] often bear witness to my amazement and wonder at the laws of nature which operate in the world around us. He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.  ~M.C. Escher

You can view M.C. Escher's work at the M.C. Escher website gallery, or at WikiArt, and see some related artwork and our ideas and inspirations on our M.C. Escher Pinterest board.

There are two lesson sets on M.C. Escher in Everyday Easels at SchoolhouseTeachers.com, as well as many other art lesson resources, including art techniques and art appreciation studies, and until September 21st, there is a Back to School Sale, so you can get two years membership for the price of one.

What's on your Virtual Fridge this week? Leave a comment, share a link, and let us know!

You can grab the button above and add it to your post. Add your link here to share your child's art or your arts and crafts how-to posts. Please visit the other blogs and admire what's on their Virtual Refrigerators!

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