Shop Online
	Posters T-Shirts Puzzles Silk Ties Silk Bow Ties Books Calendars Stationery Magnets Bookmarks Miscellaneous
	What's New Gift Items Sale Items Clearance Items Send an E-Card

Customer Comments
	friendly, helpful, and very responsive...

Bookmark Us

Newsletter
	Sign up for our low volume newsletter. We give away a poster every month.

I've been involved with M.C. Escher's work for the past several years. I don't mean I've seen his work and looked at it periodically over that time; I mean I'm immersed in his genius and creativity everyday, and almost everyday there are new discoveries.

On several occasions I've wondered what Escher would think about the popularity and the occasional metamorphosing of his art over the last 25 years. Can you imagine his thoughts on computer programs that automatically generate tessellations; would he be excited or woefully disappointed? What would he think about his art being reproduced on T-shirts, silk ties, puzzles, computer mouse pads and the like? Would he object to his art being modified to fit some marketing director's decision of what will sell this season? Could he ever have imagined an Internet site dedicated to him!?

Lots of books have been written and sold regarding Escher's art, his thoughts, and his personal history. In that reading, thousands of insights, quotes, and stories paint a picture, which by my interpretations, may provide answers to the questions posed above.

We'll be discussing tessellations for awhile, what Escher called the Regular Division of the Plane. If you don't know what one is or how to describe one, here's my answer. A tessellation is a pattern of repeating, interlocking, geometric shapes, usually of contrasting color schemes. For examples you can look in the Art Gallery at Horseman, Lizards, or the Bird Motif on the Home Page. No one I've met will deny that M.C. Escher is the master and modern day father of tessellating.

Recently, I received a software program by MECC called TesselMania!, it's a computer program for generating tessellations. I was reviewing it to determine if it belonged in the product line of our stores. Naturally, as with all new software, it was hard to wait, get it home, pop in the floppy, install it to the hard drive, and get down to some serious playing. While waiting for the icon to pop up and double clicking on it I thought, "Boy, this really cheats the system, doesn't it?" What would Escher think?

I had the pleasure, while assisting with the Escher in Seattle exhibition in Seattle, WA, to attend a tessellation seminar presented by Bill Brown and hosted by Rock Walker. In the seminar, attendees were taught how to conceive, create and produce tessellations by hand. Creating a tessellating pattern turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. The hard part was creating anything I thought to be attractive. I, and many of the attendees, achieved a great deal of pleasure from completing our assignments, particularly after Mr. Brown's skillful explanation of the history of tessellating. He reviewed Moorish tilings, hieroglyphics of various sorts, and Escher's mastery of the art. Then he unleashed the 150 plus people in the room on an unsuspecting art world.

The experience at the seminar popped into my head as the icon expanded into the program. The program gave me several examples and instructions on how to complete a tessellation. As I played around and created my first computer tessellation, I reached the same level of satisfaction, perhaps even greater, as I had in Mr. Brown's seminar. So I considered, had I really cheated according to Escher's standards?

From my layman's point of view it seems we have two basic elements of creating a tessellation, that of the structure of the shape and how the shape is colored or marked. It's interesting to note the great respect crystallographers had for Escher. Tessellation represents not just the simple repetition of shapes but can actually recreate what is found in nature. For example, the difference between graphite in your pencil and the diamond in your wife's ring is a matter of how the carbon atoms are tessellated in three dimensions. Additionally, it was while Roger Penrose was combating the problem of covering a surface, in a non-repeating way, that he discovered he could solve the problem with just two special shapes. This may seem insignificant until you realize that chemical crystals which form in the same non-repeating manner make the ideal substances for non-stick cooking pans.

Escher wrote in 'M.C. Escher, The Graphic Work'; Published by Benedikt-Taschen Verlag, the following, "The regular division of a plane... This is the richest source of inspiration that I have ever struck; nor has it yet dried up. The Moors were masters of this. They decorated walls and floors, particularly in the Alhambra in Spain, by placing congruent, multi-coloured pieces of majolica together without leaving any spaces between. What a pity it is that Islam did not permit them to make 'graven images'. They always restricted themselves, in their massed tiles, to designs of an abstract geometrical type. Not one single Moorish artist, to the best of my knowledge, ever made so bold (or maybe the idea never occurred to him) as to use concrete recognizable, naturistically conceived figures of fish, birds, reptiles or human beings as elements in their surface coverage. This restriction is all the more unacceptable to me in that the recognizability of the components of my own designs is the reason for my unfailing interest in this sphere."

I concluded that I had indeed cheated the system regarding the fundamental components of creating the structure of a tessellation, those being translation, rotation and reflection. These are the physical, mathematical constants which must be employed to successfully cover a surface. I had not, however, cheated the creative side, that of marking and coloring the tessellation into recognizable patterns, figures or characters which covered the surface. My first attempt, if you're wondering, was dinosaurs. Any parent of a six year old knows the importance of this subject.

I decided that while I may not have Escher's blessing for my technical merit I would receive kudos for my creative attempts. A split decision, if you will. We've also decided to add TesselMania! to our product line.

Continued in Part 2 ...

Tom Litchfield