In Defense of the Scribble
A scribble cannot be faked, copied, or made twice — which makes it the most honest art form on earth. The gallery rests its case.
People apologize for the scribble. "It's just a scribble," they say, the way one might apologize for a masterpiece that happens to be small.
The gallery disagrees, and the gallery has thought about it.
A scribble is the only art that cannot be revised. There is no draft, no erasing, no second thoughts — the hand moves, the crayon answers, and the moment is on the page exactly as it happened. It cannot be faked: a grown-up trying to draw like a two-year-old produces a performance, not a scribble. And it cannot be repeated. Not even by the artist. Tomorrow she will be one day older, and the line will already have changed.
That makes every scribble a signed original from a studio of one, available for exactly one morning.
This is why Olliebel catalogues everything — the date, the age, the medium (house medium: crayon). Other galleries keep records because art is valuable. We keep records because the artist is temporary, and we intend to remember her properly.
So no apologizing for the scribble. Frame it.