Tomas Schats (The Netherlands)
Drawings and Animations

Tomas Schats (Eindhoven 1976) makes clear line animations and drawings from which everything superfluous has been omitted. They are miniatures created in pencil and displayed against a blindingly clean and white background. The narratives he tells are layered and occasionally take unexpected turns. Tomas Schats says himself: 'In their minimal linearity, these drawings resemble cartoons but they are, in their simplicity, more lyrical and more ambiguous, wry, but nevertheless light-footed. They are based on reality, but transcend it is a subtle manner. They tell stories about humankind, with all its possibilities and limitations.

Schats graduated from the Academy of Art in Den Bosch in 2001. That same year, he received the Lucas Prize, which is awarded annually to the most promising young talent who graduates from this Academy. Since then his work has been displayed at art initiatives and in various art galleries in the Netherlands. Thanks to illustrations in the VPRO (broadcasting station) radio and television guide (www.vprogids.nl) and the Nrc daily newspaper (www.nrc.nl), Schats's drawings have gained renown among a wider public.

Schats regards himself as an animator rather than a draughtsman. His films have been shown in several broadcasts of VPRO's Nachtpodium and at a lot of national and international film- and animation-festivals. His drawings come to life, as it were, in his animations.

Schats also created the Fisherman's Friend book, with texts he conceived himself. It contains everyday observations recorded in a distant and meticulous manner: 'the shining layer that arises on a damp cloth when you wring it, the moment at which the water almost comes out of the cloth'. Furthermore, all kinds of platitudes have been included, sayings that people utter is certain situations, such as 'it's going around' when someone is ill. Another text in the book is a reflection on apparently simple things.

They radiate a melancholic and occasionally slightly desperate ambience: 'so much wind is blowing into my face and I can breathe so little of it', or 'sleeping is something you always do alone'. Such observations can be the stimulus to create a drawing. The corresponding text is written under the drawing so that it functions as an explanation of the picture.