Scarabs 1935

“Scarabs” is a print by M.C. Escher, of course. What a great object to study. I love the idea of Escher carving away at this block, like some kind of reverse Michelangelo. You know, instead of releasing a figure from stone, he’s trapping it in ink. Look at the way these beetles are rendered: all these tiny dots and lines. I bet Escher was thinking a lot about what it means to make something appear alive, and how to represent motion within a static image. I'm always fascinated by the different ways artists tackle repetition and pattern. For Escher, it's all about transforming one thing into another, creating these endless loops and Mobius strips of the mind, a constant interplay of figure and ground. We are all on a journey, pushing our own dung ball, aren’t we?