ARTIST BIO

Tatsiana Yelistratava is a Belarusian contemporary artist based in Hurghada, Egypt. Originally trained in medicine, she later devoted her practice entirely to visual art, developing a distinctive mixed-media approach that explores resilience, identity, and emotional transformation.

Working primarily with acrylic, collage, and cotton thread, Yelistratava creates expressive figurative paintings through a unique process in which each work is first completed, then deliberately torn apart and carefully reconstructed by hand. Rather than concealing the fractures, she preserves them as an essential part of the final composition. In selected works, cotton threads become a second visual language, symbolizing memory, silence, emotional connection, vulnerability, and the invisible forces that continue to shape us.

Her ongoing series, The Shape of Resilience, investigates healing not as a return to wholeness, but as the gradual process of becoming. Through physical fragmentation and reconstruction, her paintings transform material into metaphor, inviting viewers to reconsider resilience as the courage to embrace change rather than erase it.

Yelistratava is a member of the National Oil & Acrylic Painters' Society (NOAPS). 

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work explores the emotional landscape of resilience, identity, and transformation.

Every painting begins as a complete image. Only after it is finished do I deliberately tear it apart, allowing destruction to become part of the creative process. Each fragment is then carefully reconstructed by hand, leaving visible fractures that remain permanently present. In many works, cotton threads connect selected pieces, creating a second visual language that speaks of memory, silence, emotional ties, support, and the invisible forces that shape our lives.

This physical process mirrors the way people experience healing. We are often encouraged to hide our wounds or return to who we once were, yet life rarely allows that. I believe resilience is not about restoring perfection but about accepting transformation and discovering a new sense of wholeness.

My ongoing series, The Shape of Resilience, follows different stages of this journey—from silence and inner conflict to release, reconstruction, and renewal. Each work asks how we continue carrying our experiences without allowing them to define us.

The fractures in my paintings are never symbols of failure. They become evidence of survival, growth, and the quiet courage to begin again. Through expressive color, fragmentation, collage, and thread, I invite viewers to recognize their own stories within these reconstructed forms and to see healing not as an end point, but as a lifelong process of becoming