Groups for plant lovers are some of my favorite places to hang out online. These communities are super positive, helpful and full of interesting people. It was in one such group that I came across Marjan van der Heijden’s plant photo project in early January. In 2021, Marjan took a photo a day (every day!) with her plants. And not just a quick snapshot, but super creative photos that are guaranteed to make you chuckle.
Let’s just say my curiosity was piqued right away and I wanted to know more about how she pulled off such a long daily challenge. I have a deep admiration for people who embark on year-long daily projects. I wish I had that kind of commitment and motivation, but the truth is I haven’t pulled it off just yet. I start strong with a project (either writing, collage-making, social media, reading, learning), but my enthusiasm fizzles out quite quickly.
I reached out to Marjan to ask her more about the project and her work.
Here’s the interview:
Hi, Marjan. Can you tell us a bit more about yourself and your plant project?
I have a degree from the St Joost Art Academy in Breda (the Netherlands) and a Masters degree in Animation. In the summer of 2020, I became a full-time entrepreneur. I make and sell products on a few different themes, such as nature, animals and nostalgia, I organize exhibitions and events, give animation and textile craft lessons to every age and work on my own projects.
Even though I am an entrepreneur with a big variety of projects to work on, during the lockdown many of my activities and projects were canceled or put on hold. So me and my partner, Joël David – who took all the pictures – didn’t have much work coming our way. We saw this as the perfect opportunity to start a new project together.
How did you come up with the idea of doing a photo-a-day project with plants?
It started around Christmas 2020. As a gift, our family gave a digital photo frame to all our grandparents, with an app we could all upload pictures to it. When I wanted to upload some pictures, I found out we didn’t take as many pictures of ourselves as we had thought.
So I thought it would be a nice idea to take a plant-themed picture every day and send it to my grandparents, as they also really loved plants.
During Corona, I also sent many letters to my grandparents and I attached a new plant cutting every time.
Your photos are very whimsical and thematic. How did you come up with so many ideas to keep going for an entire year?
We had a few ideas to begin with, but after the first 50 photos, we started to run out of ideas. So I had to look for some more inspiration and found an international list of special holidays and such. That made sure we did have a theme for every day and made it much easier to make more content.
What are your top 3 favorite photos in this project?
That is always a difficult question. If I were to answer this question every day, my answers would definitely vary.
I really can’t help myself, so here are 6 of my favorites:
Day #2: I really like this one because of the ‘Bananaphone’ song. I also have this picture as my profile photo on LinkedIn and I use it for my contact page on my website. It’s very useful!
Day #15: This one is just very relevant; who would have thought two years ago teachers would be teaching online all the time? So this is me homeschooling my plants.
Day #104: I think this one is really funny, as we are some sort of a barbershop quartet. Also I like to make weird faces which I have learned from Dutch comedian André van Duin.
Day #266: This one just works because the colors are perfect, very soft and matching.
#287 Me having a cacti party! Whoop! Whoop!
Day #349: My grandmother has a Droste cocoa tin which I always liked when I was younger, because of the Droste effect. I just really needed to make this weird picture with a tote bag on my head pretending to be the woman on the cocoa packaging.
Editor’s note: The Droste effect is the perfect example of a mise en abyme effect in which an image recursively appears within itself. The illustration on the Droste tin depicts a woman holding a tray with a Droste cocoa tin on top. The cocoa tin in the illustration bears a smaller version of the woman’s image.
What was your trick to staying motivated and committed for a year-long project?
The funny thing is that I wasn’t that motivated after a while.
My grandfather was my biggest motivation, as he was really enthusiastic about the photos and talked about it with many people. But he got sick in February and passed away in June. When he was in hospice care, he showed my photos to all the nurses and talked about my project a lot. My grandmothers also like the photos, but not in the same way my grandfather did.
Also as the lockdown eased after a few months, I started to get really busy with my work and didn’t have much time left to take the pictures. As it often is in the Netherlands, by the time I was done with work, it was already too dark to take photos.
In September, we agreed to just finish the year, because it didn’t feel right to just end a project like this all of a sudden. But the nice comments on social media were also very uplifting.
What advice would you give to someone embarking on a year-long creative project?
Make sure you really do have the time for it. Make sure you can work in advance when you have a quieter time.
What was the most challenging aspect of doing this photo project?
It was a challenge to keep the ideas fresh and to not repeat ourselves too often.
Do you have a favorite houseplant?
Choosing one favorite is difficult. I really like plants with a variation of colors and patterns in their leaves, such as Calathea, Coleus and Maranta.
But at the moment my favorite is a Hoya which I inherited from my grandfather. It is a very big one; It’s growing very well and it’s very easy to propagate. I want to take many cuttings to share with many people, just to make sure this plant will always be alive somewhere.
Where can people find you online?
You can find the entire plant photo project on Instagram @mijn_planten_en_ik (which means ‘my plants and I’) and my animation portfolio @mvdheijden_animation
My handmade work is in my Etsy shop, Miss Mantis Makes.
Editor’s note: Check out these super cute monstera wood earrings made by Marjan.
And the seasonal botanical textile art:
And another of Marjan’s creations for the cottagecore fans out there:
Thank you so much for your time, Marjan!
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