Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - A Congregation of Wings

A loose congregation of pale moths turns inside a single shaft of light, suspended against a black so deep it seems to fall away without edges. They do not move in formation. They circle the way a crowd circles something it cannot fully explain, drawn closer by an instinct older than reason, the air faintly grained with dust caught and held in the light like something painted rather than photographed.

There is an old instinct held inside this image. Moths have always mistaken light for guidance, for shelter, for the moon itself, and A Congregation of Wings freezes that mistake in mid gesture, neither arriving nor leaving. It reads as devotion without a destination, a small, stubborn faith that keeps circling long after the reason for it has gone.

No paint. No print. No ink. Every wing, every particle of dust, every gradation between glare and shadow is scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass, built through controlled surface damage rather than added on top of it. The swarm exists because material has been taken away, not because anything was laid down.

The work is present in any light. Its moths and its darkness are always there to be seen, even without a single beam falling across the surface. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it, catching in the scratches so the contrast deepens and the swarm gathers weight. It reads differently from different angles, softer here, sharper there, without ever losing the image underneath.

Seen from across a room, the moths settle into a single monumental gesture in black and white. Step closer and that gesture breaks apart into a field of individual marks, a quiet record of controlled scratches that only resolves into wings again once you step back. Both are true at the same time.

A Congregation of Wings 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.

"A swarm circling light, and still, somehow, a form of faith."

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.