Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - A Small Cape Grows Giant

A bath towel, knotted loosely at the throat, is the only costume this boy needs. Seen from behind, barefoot on a lit floor, he faces a wall the way every child eventually faces a mirror, testing what he might become.

His shadow begins exactly where a shadow should, flat and faithful at his heels. It crosses the floor, climbs the wall ahead of him, and keeps climbing long after a boy his size could ever reach. By the time it settles, the towel has become a flowing cape, the small shoulders have become a hero's, and one fist is raised high against the light, unmistakably Superman, cut whole from a child's game.

Nothing about the boy asked for this. He has not posed, has not even turned to look. He is only standing still in a beam of light, and the wall has already decided to answer him in full.

The floor and the wall that hold this moment are built from a field of fine scratches, catching what light there is and keeping it close, while the towering figure above is left almost untouched, a clean black shape cut out of all that brightness, as if a legend this complete needed none of the glass's attention to already stand finished. The boy himself is caught in that same bright web, small, a little unsteady on his feet, still becoming whoever he is going to be.

No paint. No print. No ink. The image is shaped entirely by controlled scratches worked into acrylic glass, monumental from a distance, a field of individual marks up close. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it, and the contrast between the boy and his borrowed greatness deepens the nearer you stand.

A Small Cape Grows Giant belongs to Look Twice, 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 whether the small figure or the towering one is the truer likeness, both cast from a single, ordinary gesture.

"Every child already has the shadow. He is only waiting for the right wall."

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.

This listing contains AI-generated visualisations. Please refer to the original photographs to assess the actual condition of the object.