M.C. Escher was one of the most profound graphic artists. His fascination with: division of the plane, near vs. far and high vs. low is mindboggling and beautifully reflected in his artwork. I could ramble on and give a complete history on him and compare him to other graphic artist in this genre, but the artists fall short of what he created and I feel the artwork speaks for itself.
However, I would like to give you a little information on the types of tessellations and what they are composed of.
· Regular Tessellations – triangles, squares or hexagons
· Semi-Regular Tessellations – regular polygons
· Non-Regular Tessellations – have no particular shape (infinite # of this kind)
However, I would like to give you a little information on the types of tessellations and what they are composed of.
· Regular Tessellations – triangles, squares or hexagons
· Semi-Regular Tessellations – regular polygons
· Non-Regular Tessellations – have no particular shape (infinite # of this kind)
Escher (Regular Tessellation)
Computer Aided Triangulation (Regular Tessellation)
Side Walk Pattern (Non-regular Tessellation)
Natural Beehive/without bees (Semi-Regular Tessellation)
Escher, Drawing Hands 1948 (Non-Regular Tessellation)
It’s interesting to see how infinity plays a role in each of these renderings. Some were created by man (whether by hand or by technology) and others occur in nature. Where does the tessellation/paradox begin or end? Does it move inward or outward? The last photo in particular is my favorite. Which hand started first? A visual paradox!
Hi Tracey! Great post...had a few q's about the tessellations though. Besides the shapes what makes a tessellation? Do the non regular ones have to present a visual paradox? What distinguishes a tessellation from any other repetitive pattern of the aforementioned shapes? Would those 3D holographic pictures that you see in books on coffee tables and in head shops along the beach be considered tessellations? Escher is one of my personal favorites as well; which is why I am wondering if I will ever see his artwork the same way again. Maybe that is the beauty of learning how infinity ties into art? Kind of like the Fed Ex arrow on the trucks...anyone who wants that "ruined" for them lmk.
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ReplyDeleteI am going to respond to this post but I would like to include a cool photo, so I need to create a new post to do that. See above...
Great post Tracey. I think that the semi-regular tessellations and non-regular can portray infinity more than regular tessellations actually, because the non-regular ones play tricks with your mind in that you can't figure out where the beginning or end is, and the semi-regular (beehive) is sorta ambiguous, not really defined. But the regular tessellations actually seem to be countable. I can count how many shapes are inside each of those.
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