Cobwebs 1931

M.C. Escher pulled this print from a woodblock, and it's all about contrasts and seeing depth. The dark ink laid on the paper gives a real tactile quality, like you could feel the fuzz of those cobwebs. Escher really understood how to make marks that pop, and how to use the black and white to make things feel closer or farther away. See the way the webs stretch across the whole composition, catching everything in their fine, precise lines? And then, right in the center, you've got this figure caught in the web's embrace. It's like a still from a silent movie. There's something about how he made this that reminds me of Piranesi, that architect who made all those insane etchings of prisons. Escher's work, like Piranesi's, plays with perspective and depth, and this print is all about getting lost in the details. It's a reminder that in art, and maybe in life, what you see depends on how you look at it.