Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - Is it time yet?

Is it time yet? は、自分自身を繰り返す部屋から始まる。 rows of identical desks recede toward a single vanishing point, each one holding a clock that glows out of the dark surface of the acrylic glass. From a distance the office reads as a whole, almost photographic, and up close it opens into a field of fine scratches, each one part of the same repeating day.

Every clock face is a field of individual marks, caught and carried by the light rather than drawn by any applied line, scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass rather than placed onto it. The hour is always present, never switched on and never switched off. What changes with the light is only how much it shines.

At the center of the composition the desks fall away into near total darkness, gathered around one empty chair and one small plant, barely visible, almost swallowed by the row around it. It is the still point inside the machine, the one desk that has not yet been reduced to a copy of the others.

Above it all, a tree pushes through what should be a ceiling, opening into a pale field of light shaped like a hole cut into the sky. It is the only shape in the piece that is not a desk, not a clock, not a repetition of anything else, and it is treated as the brightest passage on the panel, a quiet argument for what still grows outside the schedule.

Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. Under a direct source the clocks and the canopy deepen into greater contrast and shine, and the piece reads differently as the angle shifts, while the tree, the desks and the question at its center remain constant on the surface.

Is it time yet? continues the Art with Scratch series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print, turning the ordinary architecture of work into a landscape of light and shadow that asks when, exactly, a life is allowed to begin.

"Not everyone is waiting for the same clock."

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.