This image is a remake of M.C. Escher's Square Limit woodcut. A fish generates two smaller fish towards the border, each with half its surface area. This creates a fractal structure, with (in theory) an infinite number of microscopic fish at the border. The substitution scheme at the diagonals has been made consistent, so that one fish also generates two smaller fish there. As a result, the shape of the overall image becomes a non-regular octagon instead of a square. (The longer sides of the octagon are the square root of 2 longer than the shorter sides.) The fish in the middle, and therefore their offspring, are rotated 45 degrees compared to Escher's original. In this plate, all the fish are uniform, unlike the original Square Limit woodcut. Escher “cheated” a bit and changed the fins of the fish so that they became different. For example, he made the left fin of the big red fish a triangle smaller so that the left fin of the smaller gold fish became larger. Escher probably did this for artistic reasons, as Peter Henderson pointed out in "Functional Geometry", October 2002 (and 1982).
My training as a mathematician and my experience as a software programmer are the basic elements for designing my works of art. Since my retirement in 2019 I have started creating digital art with a mathematical slant. The works of M.C. Escher are a source of inspiration. Thanks to programs.. Read more…