Joost Stokhof is an illustrator based in Amsterdam working under the name The Things We Are. Interested in the smaller details often missed by the rest of us, he’s created work for the Van Gogh Museum, National Geographic Traveler, Soho House and The Gourmand, to name a few. No stranger to the title of “artist-in-residence,” Joost moved into Amsterdam’s Hortus Botanicus to live among the plants for one week. We were drawn to the ease with which he moves between worlds – zooming in and zooming out – this time between his own emotions and the life of the plants. We featured the resulting work “I See Plants Shaking Hands,” and spoke to Joost to find out what it was really like to call a 379-year-old garden home.
