Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - A Heart Scratched From Corridors

Seen from directly above, the heart in this work is not a soft outline, it is a structure. Walls rise and turn where an edge should simply curve shut, corridors fold back on themselves, and only one narrow course breaks through from outside. Two small figures walk that course from opposite ends, each one entering the same shape with no sense yet of how close the other already is. No paint. No print. No ink. The walls of the maze, the long shadows they throw, and the two figures caught mid step exist because the surface itself has been taken away, a field of fine scratches worked into acrylic glass until every corridor holds its own edge of light and every blind turn stays dark. The image is always present in the acrylic glass, in daylight as much as under a single trained lamp. Light does not create what you see here, it sharpens it, so that under a direct source the corridors gather more shine and the heart pulls forward out of the black, while from another angle the same structure settles into something quieter, closer to a memory than a diagram. From across a room the heart reads as one pale, monumental shape cut whole out of the dark, its maze pattern almost decorative, almost calm. Up close that calm gives way to controlled surface damage, a field of individual marks that never once resolve into a straight line, as if the heart had been built by someone who did not trust an easy path to carry enough weight. A Heart Scratched From Corridors 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 measuring how far two people will walk, through turn after turn that leads nowhere, simply to arrive at each other. The maze itself is inspired by M. C. Escher, built from turns that look reasonable one at a time and refuse to add up once the eye tries to hold the whole heart at once. Neither figure can see the full route from where they stand, only the next wall, the next corner, the next small stretch of light. It is a shape anyone who has loved someone will recognise before they can explain why. 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.

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