Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - Surfacing Into Silence

A woman surfaces from a black water, her eyes closed, her shoulders just breaking the stillness above her own reflection. In Surfacing Into Silence, Tijs Dragtsma strips the figure down to what controlled surface damage on acrylic glass can hold: a field of fine scratches for the face, catching the light where cheekbone, brow and closed lid meet, and leaving the hollows of the eyes and the curve of the mouth as pure untouched black. The shoulders and chest are built the same way, a field of individual marks that thins and scatters exactly where the water begins. Below that line the image lets go of the body entirely and becomes rhythm: a wavy, continuous ribbon of scratched light, the memory of ripples, winding down through the dark glass long after the figure itself has dissolved into it. No paint. No print. No ink. The image is scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass, and it is always present, with or without direct light. Light does not create this woman. It sharpens her, deepens the contrast between the glowing field of her skin and the black that swallows everything else, so the work reads differently as you move past it without ever losing her. From across the room the piece settles into something monumental and quiet, a face suspended in black water. Up close that same face breaks apart into a field of scratches, none of them meaningful alone, all of them adding up to a woman holding her breath at the surface. That is the subject beneath the subject: the instant before going under, or just after coming up, where identity itself goes soft and unresolved, held in place by nothing but light and the memory of ripples. Surfacing Into Silence continues the Art with Scratch series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print. A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure. "She is not emerging. She is held, exactly between breath and silence." About Art with Scratch Art with Scratch is a body of work in which the image is not drawn, but released. Carved line by line into a deep black surface, each work emerges through countless precise scratches that catch the light and bring form out of darkness. From a distance, the image appears almost photographic. Powerful, recognisable and full of presence. Yet up close, the work dissolves into a dense field of individual marks. Fine, fragile and almost weightless. What seemed solid reveals itself as a delicate web of lines, each one a deliberate gesture, each one essential to the whole. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The black surface absorbs, while the scratched lines reflect. As light shifts across the surface, the image breathes. From one angle the figure stands clear and defined. From another it softens and settles back toward the darkness from which it came, without ever disappearing. Under a focused spotlight, the contrast deepens and the image takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality. What makes this medium so compelling is its quiet tension. The act of scratching is direct and irreversible. Every line is a decision that cannot be undone. Yet the result is not harsh. It is intimate, atmospheric and alive with movement. Hardness becomes softness. Destruction becomes creation. Absence becomes presence. In works such as this portrait, the figure is never fully fixed. Through the interplay of line, light and shadow, the image shifts with perspective and atmosphere. At certain moments, the subject seems to step forward out of the black. At others, it settles back into stillness. It is within that movement, between sharpness and calm, that the work comes alive. Like all materials touched by time, the surface carries its own quiet life. Each scratch holds a moment, a breath, a gesture. Together they form not just an image, but a presence, one that continues to reveal itself with every change of light. About the Artist My name is Tijs Dragtsma, founder of TD Fine Art Studio. As an artist, I am driven by a constant desire to explore new visual languages. I do not see art as a fixed style, but as an evolving field of discovery where material, structure, light and emotion come together. My work often begins with a simple question. How can a material speak in a new way. How can hardness become intimacy. How can precision create emotion. That search lies at the heart of everything I create. Within TD Fine Art Studio, each body of work is approached as its own world, with its own logic, atmosphere and visual identity. Some works are built through rhythm, repetition and structure. Others emerge through absence, shadow, reflection or tension. What connects them is a shared commitment to originality, clarity and emotional presence. I am fascinated by contrast. Between strength and fragility. Between control and feeling. Between what is visible and what is left open to interpretation. My goal is not simply to make an image, but to create a work that holds attention, invites reflection and continues to reveal itself over time. TD Fine Art Studio is the space in which these explorations come together. It is not only a studio, but an evolving artistic universe shaped by curiosity, precision and the ambition to create work that feels distinctive, intentional and alive.

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