Expressive Portraits: M.C. Escher

The artist whom I chose to highlight is the famous optical illusionist M.C. Escher. This particular self-portrait is titled "Hand With Reflecting Sphere." In this work, Escher captures not only himself in the work, but also his surrounding environment. Somehow he manages to contain it all in this little glass ball.
The reason this piece is quite expressive to me is that is shows Escher's level of self-reflection; he constantly did self-portraits and various other "reflective sphere" self-portraits. It seems he liked to put himself under a microscope and scrutinize every detail of himself (much like myself).
I also can't fail to notice that his hand is done in a realistic fashion and his interpretation of himself seems rather cartoon-like within the glass sphere. I can only assume that what he's trying to say is that he views himself as a "joke" or maybe just as a funny looking person.
I am a big fan of Escher's illusions; his ability as a mathematician only helped his creation of absurd situations. Other good, well known Escher pieces are "Waterfall" and "Relativity." Be sure to Google some more of his "spherical self-portraits" to get a better idea of his self-interpretation.