June 17, 1898

M. C. Escher, noted graphics artist, was born on June 17, 1898. We are familiar with so many of Escher's images, and they have a common quality: the drawings come alive and point inward to Escher's unique self reflective linearscape, where the line itself is the creative means and end. The drawing named "White Cat" though, is quite different. The linear precision is typical Escher, but the emphasis is on the object itself, and a fidelity to the image of cat. The "White Cat" indeed in its thingness seems to burst the bounds of the page, quite the opposite of the Escher feats where the line turns on itself with maze like perplexities.