Exposition Nieuwerkerk

I get a call from an unknown person who invites me to exhibit my work in the church in my village, then Covid strikes mercilessly and just before that happened, the Netherlands went into Lockdown….😪

2024

I get a call from Truus asking if I want to try again, what you will always see is that I have been incredibly busy in the recent months with the takeover and moving of our company, working for a new boss, 2 children who are
getting divorced and having to move, looking after the grandkids, looking after the dog and of course all the emotions that comes with it, so as always there is a lot going on in the van der Graaf house😬
But how often do you get a chance like this?

So even though I actually don’t have enough time, yes of course I’m going to do this!

Protestanse Gemeente Nieuwerkerk

Now I’m the kind of person who really wants to have everything firmly under control, so I’m the type that prepares well in advance and gets started with printing out price tags with a logo because I’m very into the corporate identity and I’m not into the ugly written notes…
Find drawings that are displayed and hanging throughout the house and place them neatly in boxes with bubble wrap so that they do not get damaged and to make them as easy as possible to take with me. Furthermore, all small items such as strings and ✂️ to hang them up, donkeys, calendars🗓️, gift vouchers, 🖋️, invoices and much more must all be taken along, never forgetting an electric heater🔥 and warm clothing because in such a Church itis often incredibly cold ❄️ if you stand there all the time. So everything is ready and sorted in my guest room well in time and I have a calm mind because everything is under control.

I must admit that I am a bit ashamed because I have lived in this village for 23 years and have never been to
this church…🫣 But they are not blaming me, on the contrary!

Then I’ll first look around and see how I’m going to handle things because I literally have the entire church
to myself. There are some kind of hooks where they use to hang the caps that I can use to hang my paintings, of course
you are not allowed to put nails or tape anywhere because they don’t like that, it is a monumental church. It is always more work than you think and hope, it takes me more than 2.5 hours to get everything done the way
I want it. Did I mention that I’m also a bit of a perfectionist??😏 I also literally took everything I had in animal drawings because it is a large space and of course it has to be somewhat filled and fun to look at, normally I take a lot less with me. They have already turned on the heater for me and fortunately it is soon a lot warmer an  then going home and getting up in time tomorrow.

And you will always see that I have been awake half the night and just before I had to get up I fall asleep and
of course I am completely exhausted and I also have incredible pain in my back from yesterday’s lugging around,
but hey it is what it is, I’m going to take a nice hot shower and take some ibuprofen and then I can handle it
again. I make sure I’m there at 9 o’clock with my husband because I can’t hang my very large banner alone and
I really need help with it. On arrival, of course, first have a cup of tea 🫖 just say hello to the people who are very busy for the KIKA charity and then we go to church ⛪ where I check everything again, all price tags are there, just dust everything off and hang as straight as possible and then you just have to wait until the first people come.

It is still incredibly cold, although the heater is already on, but in such a large room it takes a while before it gets a bit warm.
Luckily I brought a small heater with me, so I turned it on. First, an employee from the church⛪ comes to take a look and immediately buys a calendar🗓️, that’s a good start!

After that it gets quite busy, because in my own village it is striking that I know so few people and they ask me
where I come from and when I say from this village I am told, Hey, but I’ve never seen you, no, but I’ve never seen
you either, I say. And that led to some very nice conversations and in January I’m even going to have tea with an almost neighbor who I had never met before🫖, which is really fun and I’m already looking forward to this!