Blad 160 uit Stamboek van de leerlingen der Koloniale School voor Meisjes en Vrouwen te 's-Gravenhage deel II (1930-1949) c. 1949

This is a page from a student register, made anonymously in the Netherlands between 1930 and 1949, at the Koloniale School for Girls and Women. The handwritten entries, made in a precise, almost bureaucratic hand, catch my eye. There's a fascinating tension here: the grid attempts to contain, to order, but the unruly nature of handwriting resists. Look at the signatures—they're like little rebellions, each a unique flourish against the regimented lines. The ink, probably applied with a simple nib pen, varies in density, some lines thick and bold, others thin and hesitant. It's almost as if we can feel the weight of the hand that made each mark. And that makes me think about my own process of painting—the way I try to balance intention and accident, order and chaos. Each mark is a decision, but it's also a response to what came before. Like Cy Twombly’s scribbles, these signatures feel like traces of a human presence, embedded in the surface of the page.