Tatiana Ilves

Hi, I’m Tanya — an artist living and creating in the United States.

Originally trained as a history teacher, I chose instead to make my own history through art. My work explores the intense emotional spectrum of living with bipolar disorder — the swing between light and dark, tenderness and fury, beauty and distortion.

Painting, for me, is not just about the final image. It’s a way to release what can’t be said — a surge of raw emotion made visible.

I mainly work in mixed media, using oil and acrylic paint, often layering unexpected materials like paper, foil, glue — even pizza boxes — to give my pieces texture and unpredictability.

My goal is to create work that feels like it might bite back.

Leningrad State University named after Pushkin and school of life

Moscow exhibition of young artists, 2022