Aantekening uit archief Jan Veth 1898 - 1984

This note from the Jan Veth archive, of indeterminate date, is inscribed on what looks like a grubby scrap of paper. The pencil lines meander, piling up like a hedge, with words that veer off in all directions. I sympathize with the hand that wrote this. I know that place. When I write, it's a bit like groping around in the dark, feeling for a way out of the maze! This feels very like my process - that intense focus, that internal need to get something down. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's scribbles, which are also a kind of writing that's also a kind of drawing. It's like the artist is in a conversation with themself, wrestling with language, chasing after some idea that keeps slipping away. This note shows how artists are always in dialogue, echoing and responding to one another across time, inspiring each other's messy, beautiful creativity.