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Stars is a wood engraving print; that is, it was produced by carving the artwork into the end grain of a block of wood (unlike a woodcut which uses the side grain), and then using this block to print the image. It was created by Escher in October 1948. Although most published copies of Stars are monochromatic, with white artwork against a black background, the copy in the National Gallery of Canada is tinted in different shades of turquoise, yellow, green, and pale pink.The print depicts a hollowed-out compound of three octahedra, a polyhedral compound composed of three interlocking regular octahedra, floating in space. Numerous other polyhedra and polyhedral compounds float in the background; the four largest are, on the upper left, the compound of cube and octahedron; on the upper right, the stella octangula; on the lower left, a compound of two cubes; and on the lower right, a solid version of the same octahedron 3-compound. The smaller polyhedra visible within the print also include all of the five Platonic solids and the rhombic dodecahedron. In order to depict polyhedra accurately, Escher made models of them from cardboard.Two chameleons are contained within the cage-like shape of the central compound; Escher writes that they were chosen as its inhabitants "because they are able to cling by their legs and tails to the beams of their cage as it swirls through space". The chameleon on the left sticks out his tongue, perhaps in commentary; H. S. M. Coxeter observes that the tongue has an unusual spiral-shaped tip.
regular octahedra spiral polyhedral compound compound of three octahedra print stella octangula octahedron compound of cube and octahedron H. S. M. Coxeter rhombic dodecahedron monochromatic woodcut Plato polyhedra wood engraving chameleon polyhedral Platonic solid National Gallery of Canada compound of two cubes