Meisje met een hoepel en hond c. 1904 - 1906

Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof made this small drawing of a girl, a hoop, and a dog with graphite on paper. It's all lines, like he's thinking with a pencil. The girl stands there like a punctuation mark, ready for her day, her dress like a long note. And the dog, a simple equation of what a dog might be – tail, four legs, maybe listening. I wonder, what was Dijsselhof thinking? Was this a study for something larger, or was it enough on its own? Sometimes I just like to draw with no outcome. But, you know, the act itself becomes the thing. This piece reminds me of others, drawings by children, art brut, all using simplicity to get at something essential. It feels like we're invited to dream up all the rest. The rest of the colour, the rest of the story. So get dreaming... and let it spark your own mark making.