Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - A Mouth Drinks the Glow

A Mouth Drinks the Glow holds a head tilted all the way back, a throat bared to the dark, and a mouth open as if mid swallow. Above it a phone hangs raised in one hand, and from its screen a small stream of glowing hearts falls, not toward an open palm or a waiting ear, but straight down into the open mouth beneath it.

No paint. No print. No ink. The raised arm, the hand, the phone and the hearts falling from it, the open jaw catching them, all of it is scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass, a field of individual marks formed so densely along the arm and the screen that they hold a steady light, thinning into the shape of a jaw and a throat where the body bends to receive what is falling. Everywhere else, the hair, the shoulders, the room, stays folded into black.

From across a gallery the work reads as a single upward gesture, one arm raised into a rain of small lights. Up close, that gesture resolves into controlled surface damage, a field of fine scratches that becomes a hand, then a screen, then a scatter of hearts falling into an open mouth.

The image does not wait for a lamp to be seen. It is present in full light and in low light alike, visible from the moment you stand in front of it. Under a raised light the scratches catch and the contrast deepens, the hearts gain weight, the throat gains shadow. It reads differently from different angles, without ever losing the image. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it.

There is an old hunger in this pose, head back, mouth open, waiting to be filled, and the series gives it a new source. What falls here is not water, not wine, not anything that could feed a body. It is affirmation, shaped like a heart because that is the shape we have agreed will stand for being wanted. The man drinks it anyway, and asks for more by tilting his head further back.

A Mouth Drinks the Glow belongs to Audience of One, 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 asking what a person is still trying to feed when food was never the point. Somewhere in the room where you are reading this, a phone is probably within reach, maybe in your hand right now. The pose on the wall is not as far from yours as it first looks.

"An open mouth, a falling light, and the oldest question dressed in something small enough to swallow."

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.