Given to Stillness

Given to Stillness is a contemporary artwork about surrender, inward vision, and the calm that exists on the other side of seeing.

A woman stands in absolute darkness. Her face is tilted slightly upward, composed and still. A blindfold of dark sculptural fabric covers her eyes, and yet she does not appear lost. She appears arrived. There is no tension in her posture, no reaching outward. She has given herself over to something the eye cannot follow.

No paint. No print. No ink. The image emerges through controlled surface damage on acrylic glass. Light catches each mark differently as the viewer moves, drawing the figure slowly into presence and releasing her again. In one light she is fully visible. In another she recedes back into the black. The image lives in that movement, always between clarity and quiet.

From a distance, the composition holds itself as a single monumental figure suspended in silence. Move closer and the surface reveals a field of controlled scratches, each one a mark of removal rather than addition. Nothing was placed here. Everything was taken away.

The blindfold is often read as a sign of vulnerability or blindness. Here it carries a different meaning. This is a woman who has chosen not to look outward so that something inward can come forward. The title names that choice. Stillness is not something that falls upon her. It is something she has given herself to, completely.

Given to Stillness 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.

"She does not need to see. She already knows where she is."

More about the artist, process and materials can be found on the About page.

Questions about this work, availability or shipping can be sent through the contact page.