Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - The Moon She Reached For

A tribute to Girl with Balloon by Banksy, this is an independent, unique work by Tijs Dragtsma. It is not a copy, a reproduction or a print of the original, and it carries no authorisation from the artist, the estate or any foundation behind that image. It is a bow, offered from another hand entirely. In the finished work the girl survives as a black silhouette, untouched, cut clean out of a field of fine scratches that glows around her like static light caught against a wall. Her hair and her skirt still move in that imagined wind. One arm still reaches. But where the string once held a balloon, it now holds the moon itself, small and full and pulling gently away, shaped from the same scratched light as the wall behind her. That is the quiet twist. A balloon can be let go on purpose. A moon on a string cannot, not really, it only ever drifts, slow and sure, following its own pull rather than any child's hand. The reaching stays exactly as urgent, the distance grows a little more impossible, and the whole scene tips from a story about releasing something into a story about watching something leave. The image is always present, in every light, because it is scratched directly into the acrylic glass rather than printed or painted onto it. Light does not create this image, it sharpens it: under a direct source the scratches catch and the contrast deepens, the moon seems to pull further into its own glow, and the girl's silhouette holds firmer against the dark. Seen from across a room it reads as one simple, monumental gesture. Up close it resolves into a field of individual marks, a hand's worth of controlled surface damage standing in for light itself. The Moon She Reached For belongs to In Tribute, a series within Art with Scratch by Tijs Dragtsma in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print, and in which that same damage becomes a way of meeting a landmark gesture again, from another angle and another moment, with a bow rather than a copy. Banksy's original has long been read as a small study in hope reaching past its own grasp. This version keeps that reach and changes only what it reaches for, trading something a child could lose by choice for something that was never hers to keep. A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure. "Some things you let go of. Others simply drift." 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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