Oh, Sir Maurits Cornelis Escher.

When I was little, my dad was cleaning the house and found his old books. Of the dustiest of these books, there was a simple paperback book with an odd image on the cover.Just from a glance, the cover interested me, but when I peered closer into the three-dimensional star in the center, I saw that it was hallow, sprouting a rainbow of arms, legs, and heads. If I looked even longer, I saw that these colorful extremeties formed several different lizard-like creatures that all seem to be looking for another of their kind, or... looking for nothing at all. Just... staring. Statuesque were these assorted reptiles that were trapped in the star. Or maybe the star was sheltering them.The point is kids don't usually think or observe this much, and since I did, it triggered a complete change in the images my mind projected into the outside world, via drawing or writing or speech. All of the doodles on the sides of my tests consisted of regular polygons and spirals and geometrical patterns and everything in between, as opposed to "this is mommy, and this is daddy" stick people. I surprised myself and had no idea what inspired such radical drawings.
M. C. Escher... I guess his work is what inspired me, as did many other things from my childhood. The more drawn to a film, photo, person, event, place, noun, etc., the more of an effect it had on my all around personality. Escher just happened to be one of those things, I guess.
The book my father had pulled out of his collection and had given to me was The Graphic Work of M. C. Escher. The paperback version. It was dusty, but in good condition (ignoring the paint splatter on the inside cover). It's... somewhere, buried in that Labyrinth of an attic of mine.
I'm still wondering... did Maurits Escher use a ruler and a compass? I couldn't draw a straight line or a semi-perfect cirlce to save the few people I care about; He can paint a seemingly perfect infinite spiral made of lizards... or dog... goat... things.

I love designs that feature impossible constructions and infinity like "Belvedere" or "Snakes."

I thought and thought about it over several years, and I don't know why I like the dream-worldish landscapes and characters I like. Maybe I wish this weren't the real life. Imagination is infinite and nothing is absolute within it. Maybe I want to live there instead of here."Snakes"^The Dutch graphic artist, M. C. Escher lived from 1898 until 1972, dying at the age of 73. As a child, he was very inactive, due to illness. In his early school life, his grades were atrocious, but he focused his talent into the arts: drawing, piano-playing, etc.
He wanted to go to school for architecture, but his disease intruded and he had to study decorative arts.
Escher was inspired by italian architecture: cities and castles and such.