Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - Stone Still Reaching Upward

Stone Still Reaching Upward captures a weathered graveyard angel caught under a single source of light, wings chipped at the shoulder blades, face tilted upward as if still listening for something lost long ago. The pose is ancient, the kind carved into cemeteries for centuries, yet here it feels newly found, as though time itself had been asked to sit still.

No paint. No print. No ink. The angel is scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass, its form built entirely through controlled surface damage rather than pigment. What looks like erosion, like years of rain and wind, is in fact the opposite of decay. The image appears through removal, not addition, a figure summoned by what was taken away.

The image is always present, visible without a spotlight aimed at it. Light does not create the image, it sharpens it. Under direct light the controlled scratches catch and reflect, the contrast deepens, and the wings and face rise further out of the black. From another angle the same figure settles into quiet, reading differently without ever losing itself.

Seen from across a room, the work reads as one monumental, aching figure. Move closer and that figure dissolves into a field of controlled scratches, small marks that only resolve into stone and skin at a certain distance, the same way grief only resolves into meaning with time.

Graveyard angels are memorials built to outlast the people who commissioned them, and still they crack, chip and wear down like everything else. Stone Still Reaching Upward holds that contradiction in one gesture, a figure worn nearly to ruin that keeps its face turned upward anyway. It is a study in what survives damage, and what damage cannot take.

Stone Still Reaching Upward 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. For questions about this piece or the series, visit the About page or reach out through the contact form.

"Even worn to ruin, it never stopped reaching."

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.