1.) M.C. Escher, whose real name is Maurits Cornelius Escher, was born in Leeuwaren, Netherlands in 1898. He created intriguing works of art, that explore and exhibit a wide range of mathematical ideas. While he was in school, his family had intended for him to follow his fathers footsteps and pursue a career in architecture. But a desire for drawing and design eventually lead Escher into a career in graphic arts. Unfortunately, his work went unnoticed for several years. By 1956, he gave his first important exhibition which was written up in Time Magazine. This acquired a world-wide reputation for Escher. Among his greatest admirers were mathematicians who recognized an extraordinary visualization of mathematical principles. This was quite odd because Escher had no mathematical concept beyond secondary school.
             He was inspired by the mathematical ideas he read about. He worked directly from structures in plane and projective geometry. Escher's work encompasses two broad areas of math, the geometry of space, and the logic of space.
             An example of the geometry of space would be a tessellation, which many of Escher's masterpieces have been derived. A tessellation is a regular division of a plane, which are arranged of closed shapes that completely cover the plane without overlapping and without leaving any gaps. Some typical shapes which make up a tessellation are polygons and squares. Escher was especially delighted in what he called "metamorphoses," where the shapes changed and interacted with each other.
             In 1936, Escher traveled to Spain where he saw the tile patterns used in the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a walled city and fortress in Granada, Spain. The palace is lavishly decorated with stone and wood carvings and tile patterns on most of the ceilings, walls and floors. The Islamic art which this work is created, does not use representations of living beings, but heavily uses geometri
             ...