The Scroll, chapter 21 from The Works

A Journey in Seeing

A long-term visual memoir by Tineke Storteboom.

Each chapter is published as it is written. Together they form an ongoing book about the development of an artistic practice over nearly four decades.

2008

"The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet."— Laozi

By 2008, I had already worked in many studios.

A room on the Singel.

A shared factory building.

An old classroom.

A small tower overlooking the Bilderdijkpark.

A vast studio inside a technical school.

A studio around the corner from our home on the Brouwersgracht.

Looking back, I realise that every studio changed the work.

Not only because of the space, but because of the people who entered.

At the technical school I was almost the only woman working there. During the breaks, students, from diffferent backgrounds: Dutch, Moroccan, Turkish, would wander into my studio. They watched me paint, asked endless questions and, before long, some of them were making stretcher frames for my paintings in the school's woodworking department.

Years later, in the studio near our home, my children's classmates would stop by on their way to the playground. They wanted to see what was happening behind the studio door.

I never minded.

Curiosity has always felt like the beginning of art.

That same year we acquired Château de Gressoux in France.

For the first time, I had a second studio.

The rhythm of life changed.

So did my work.

Around that time I met the Japanese artist Satoshi Ando.

He introduced me to the traditional craft of mounting scrolls.

Until then I thought of a painting as something that belonged on a wall.

A scroll taught me something different.

A painting could be rolled up.

Carried.

Stored.

Unfolded.

It became an object with its own life.

Making a scroll required patience.

Paper.

Silk.

Paste.

Wood.

Every material had its own voice.

Nothing could be hurried.

What fascinated me most was not only the technique.

It was the idea that the painting was no longer complete by itself.

The scroll embraced it.

It became a vessel.

Looking back now, I realise that this encounter quietly changed the way I thought about art.

Not simply as an image,

but as something that could travel,

be unfolded,

shared,

and experienced in time.

"The soft overcomes the hard.The gentle overcomes the rigid." Laozi

Some encounters last only a few days. Their influence can last a lifetime.