Escher Tessellations

 M. C. Escher, an artist and mathematician, spent many years learning how to use translations, rotations, and reflections to create his masterpieces. Study the Escher tessellation below. What regular polygons are apparent in the tessellation? Can you imagine how he may have constructed the artwork?

from  http://library.advanced.org/16661/gallery/escher/2.html

For your pleasure and future teaching needs, here are several web-based and print resources about tessellations and M. C. Escher. You may want to check these out now and/or keep them in a "safe place" as a resource later!
(compiled by Suzanne Harper, University of Virginia)

• "A Tessellation Tutorial" from The Math Forum at Swarthmore College. This site includes tutorials and templates for making your own tessellations with various pieces of software. http://mathforum.org/sum95/suzanne/tess.gsp.tutorial.html
• "Totally Tessellated" is a quite impressive World Wide Web site intended to be a helpful and interesting resource regarding tessellations. It is only an basic introduction into the complex world of tessellations and tilings. The three designers and creators of this site are Alok Bhushan of McLean, Virginia; Kendrick Kay of Martinez, GA; and Eleanor Williams of Palos Verdes, California. All three graduated from high school in 1998, and all three coincidentally attended Harvard University as freshman in Fall 1998.   http://library.advanced.org/16661/
• "A Tour: M.C. Escher -- Life and Work" is a website form the National Gallery of Art. It provides a brief biography of M.C. Escher and a virtual museum tour of some of his wonderful art work. http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/ggescher/ggescher-main1.html
• "Celebrate 100 years of M. C. Escher" is a web site developed by iproject â ONLINE. It includes links to: a written biography, Escher exhibitions, books on Escher, school resources, and Escher-related products. http://www.iproject.com/escher/escher100.html
• "M. C. Escher: Artist or Mathematician?" is a web site which includes a brief biography, a display of Escher’s art, and a tessellation tutorial. http://library.advanced.org/11750/
• This web site includes a brief biography of Escher; selections from favorite Escher works; links to other WWW Escher sites; and books about M.C. Escher.  http://www.erols.com/ziring/escher.htm
• "David McAllister's Escher Collection" has many of Escher’s drawings and paintings to view. http://www.cs.unc.edu/~davemc/Pic/Escher/

Related Articles:

Bolster, C. (1973). Activities: Tessellations. Mathematics Teacher, 66 , 339-42.
Freitag, R. A. (1978). Tiling. Mathematics Teacher, 71, 199-202.
Haak, S. (1976). Transformation geometry and the artwork of M.C. Escher. Mathematics Teacher, 69, 647-52.
Hollingsworth, C. (1984). Perplexed by hexed. Mathematics Teacher, 77, 560-2.
Kingston, M. (1957). Mosaics by reflections. Mathematics Teacher, 50, 280-6.
Maletsky, E. M. (1974). Designs with tessellations. Mathematics Teacher, 67, 335-8.
Ranucci, E. R. (1968). A tiny treasury of tessellations. Mathematics Teacher, 61, 114-7.
Ranucci, E. R. (1974). Master of tessellations: M.C. Escher, 1898-1972. Mathematics Teacher, 67, 299-306.
Teeters, J. L. (1974). How to draw tessellations of the Escher type. Mathematics Teacher, 67, 307-10.
Troccolo, J. A. (1977). A strip of wallpaper. Mathematics Teacher, 70, 55-8.