Design for a Postage Stamp: "Voor het Nationaal Luchtvaartfonds" (For the National Aviation Foundation) 1935

M.C. Escher designed this stamp for the National Aviation Foundation, using ink and graphite. I can imagine Escher sitting at his desk, carefully sketching out the map of the Netherlands, with those planes casting a shadow of modernity over the land. You know, there’s something kind of funny about the way the text overlaps with the image. It's like he's playing with our perception, making us work a little harder to decipher the message. Maybe he was thinking about how we navigate information, how we piece things together in our minds. It reminds me of some of my own paintings, where I layer different elements and let the viewer sort of find their own way through the composition. Escher was really operating at the intersection of math and art and in that way, he reminds me of some contemporary artists today such as Sol Lewitt. It feels like one big, ongoing conversation.