In the Studio with Johanna Veerenhuis

Article Transcript

When my husband, Johannes, and I bought this house, we were not exactly sure what we wanted to do with our future, but we knew we wanted a house with a large space, to start a Caricature Café, or something like that. We moved in on December 19th, 2008.

The month before, we were at the Annual Convention in Raileigh, NC where I won my first “First Prize” in the 3D category. That was an amazing experience, especially since I had not sculpted anything since I was 12 years young.

I started sculpting like crazy and a few months later, we opened our museum in our now living room, where I displayed and talked about my works. We worked hard, I appeared on local and national media a few times and visitors started to come.

Never will I forget the very first visit we had: Two tour buses for a total amount of 102 people. They all came to see my work and listen to my stories. That was a humbling experience and I’ll never forget it. But it was a success.

The museum lasted for almost three years. Then I got an offer that I could not refuse, to take my collection to another museum with much more visitors and so we did. The collection drew 35,000 visitors in that one year and left me with enough sculpting commissions to fill up the next two years.

Once we closed the museum, we regained our privacy and I’ve been sculpting commissions ever since.Now we have the huge 120 square meter living room you see below and a beautiful view. The living room used to be the barn on this 112 year old farm.

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1. When I draw, I love to draw at this massive, antique industrial drawing table. I bought it 20 years ago and have moved it with me ever since, which Johannes is not too happy about, since it’s very, very heavy.

2. When I sculpt, I work on this antique desk. At first I had a very small and ugly but efficient desk, but when we got more visitors, I felt I needed something more representative. A room-facing desk, not wall-faced.

3. The little extra space behind my desk is perfect to store the most-needed materials. In the same space on the floor is my oven, where I bake the sculptures.

4. My aprons that I bought at Walmart are right behind my desk. They hang on a heavy hook with a crown on top; a sweet gift that fellow artist Emily Byrne sent me.

5. Behind this door is a very small extra room, which is perfect to store even more materials: Clay, paints, paper, fabrics, a little photo studio and a box with a filter and ventilation where I can spray paint my sculptures.

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1. I use my iMac mostly to study reference pictures. Color-shapers are used as sculpting tools and all kinds of brushes for decorative painting of the sculptures.

2. Tinfoil on my desk is used to create the armatures of the sculptures. As well as wire, wooden sticks, etc. Oh, and you can find paint bottles everywhere.

3. This is where I sculpt, on the round turning table. When I tried to find one in the U.S., I learned that there it’s called a Lazy Susan. Shown here is some Super Sculpey, wire and sculpting tools.

4. To mix my paints on, I use cheap plastic plates. Sometimes I think I should’ve kept them all, they’d be an exhibition by themselves!

5. My workspace has views at our garden and at the fields, that’s why I always have binoculars on hand, to spot birds and deer etc.

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1. Behind my desk is a cute little white door that leads to a tiny extra room, more like a closet, built onto the house. I use it to hide most of my artist’s mess. You know, the things you think “you MIGHT need SOME day” and forget about. Also there’s a box that Johannes made for me, with an air purifier, to spray paint my sculptures in.

2. As well as a small portable photo studio box, large enough to take pictures of my sculptures in.

3. In the little space next to where I sit behind my desk, Johannes made me 2 shelves, to put my most needed materials on: A pasta machine to flatten the clay, all kinds of glue and plaster, many brushes and sculpting tools and lots of paint.

4. This is the stand of my daylight lamp. It was an expensive one, but well worth the money. When the days get shorter in The Netherlands as they do now already, this lamp provides me with so much more time to work! Besides, it has a classical design so it matches our interior and since it has wheels, I can move it all around the house, where ever I’d like to work.

5. My oven. As most things here, I bought it secondhand, online. It worked in a Turkish restaurant before. Heats up very quickly! The timer is dead, but I use my iPhone for that.

Imagine, this oven has had Trump in it, the Dalai Lama, the Pope, Marilyn Monroe, Susan Boyle, Malala Yousafzai, Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. And lots of kebab, before I bought it.

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