Tap, tap, tap. The sound of a hammer hitting the head of a nail echoes through the living room. It is a common sound for the Dragtsma family, now that father Tijs is busy making portraits of celebrities almost every day.
Art with nails, he calls it. In the living room there are examples of John Lennon and The Girl with a Pearl Earring, but he has also made portraits of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Mona Lisa. In his shed where he can often be found, there is ‘a Sinatra’ hanging. “There are 2,250 nails in it. The carpentry alone takes a whole day’s work.”
Place hundreds of dots
Dragtsma merges technology and craft. He first makes a digital composition of the portrait on the computer by placing hundreds of dots. A drill drills the holes into the acrylic glass with extreme precision, after which Tijs hammers the nails into the wooden plate behind it.