My Dream

Since my childhood I, Trudie Teijink, dreamt of living sustainably on a small farm. Born and raised in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, living this dream was never realistic. When the opportunity finally arrived, my husband Kees and I jumped at it and bought an abandoned acreage near rural Howells, Nebraska.

I felt strangely, and strongly attracted and attached to this place. The farmhouse still showed some former glory and appeared to tell stories of "typical" North American rural history. This farm had seen many "improvements" in ways of farming: from horsepower work to enormous combines harvesting monocultures to being abandoned and no longer functional. I wanted to save this rural gem, with its old garage, its chicken coop, and its barn, old and majestic but falling apart. Preserving an over 120-year-old farm felt necessary and like it was my responsibility. It surprised me that I, as an immigrant, felt compelled to preserve this place. Does it represent my history? Am I like the original homesteaders? Am I also perhaps taking land that does not originally belong to me?

As I started this journey, I was inspired by Pippi Longstocking, a book character from my childhood. This independent girl lived by herself in her colorful house: Villa Villekulla or colorfull villa. Villekulla Farm is equally colorful, with primary colors related to the buildings: red for the barn, linked to farming, blue for the house, related to place, and yellow for the repurposed chicken coop, referring to art. Together, I see these primary colors mixing in colorful combinations and representing interactions between the different components.

Once I truly started living in this new rural environment, I felt the difference between the familiar metropolitan culture and the unfamiliar rural culture. I experienced the political and cultural divisions firsthand, but also found many similarities. With Villekulla Farm, I unite the two opposing sides using visual art as the connecting tissue.

The Chicken Coop Artist-in-Residency (AIR) offers time and space for visual artists to focus on their creative process in a rural setting.”