Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Apr 6, 2007

M.C. Escher

Filed in Days Out

05 April

My friend Amber came down to see me with her niece, and we went to the Escher exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art. Wow. I can see the brilliance of his work, and roughly how it’s done, but to actually know how to do it…in fact, to know to do it at all…that I can’t fathom. I sometimes wonder whether he weren’t taking hallucinogenics, or if he just saw the world in a completely different dimension.

I feel I lack a vocabulary to understand and express what I thought of the work. “Fascinating” is apt but just doesn’t seem to cover it. “Warped” would be another one. But it’s warped in a beautiful, not generally a disturbing, way. I was particularly intrigued to hear that his love of music inspired him–its rhythm and patterns carried forward into the way he designed. Looking through, I felt the waves of creativity lifting me up so high.

By far my favorite were the Celtic-inspired intertwining serpents…but I liked the art where he drew the “real” world, as well.

A chat with a docent revealed that his work lead into the “op-art” movement, a graphic art form that relies on bold colors and black and white to create optical illusions. The next room housed such a display, with images leaping out from the walls even though a close look revealed that they were, in fact, flat. The colors were so brash and the illusions so strong that I left there feeling dizzy, ungrounded, and with a headache. Op-art might have been a development, but I find Escher’s subtlety much superior. I’ve never felt seasick after viewing art before.

After a break in which we relocated our balance, we took a short walk round town so that I could show Amber the local collection of landmarks. Bemused, I noticed a Japanese woman wearing stockings and a schoolgirl dress checking out a marker with her boyfriend. The Post Office is bringing out new Star Wars stamps, and found a unique way to promote it. And a large fish on the site of a former fish market proved that when in a city, it’s always a good idea to look upwards.