>No. I find it interesting because of the whole "starving artist who paints himself ill and just can't stop because his soul is tearing at him to get it out onto canvas" stuff I keep hearing about artists.
>
>As for Escher, I have no idea what his regime was, if he had one.

Probably not that totalitarian :).

Besides, our own starving artist has returned from his various states, and tries occasionally to draw some Escherian images using only words.