What the Layers Hold

A body of work by Tatjana Tscherepanov

Nothing is ever truly erased. It is only covered, softened by time, altered by light, layered by experience.

This series is an exploration of memory, impermanence, and the human mind - an invitation to notice what lies beneath the surface, what remains and what changes as time passes, and how we choose to see the world around us.

In these mixed-media works, I bring together geometric structure and organic flow to create compositions that feel both intentional and intuitive, constructed and weathered. Through layers of printing, painting, and collage, the pieces reflect a lived, tactile process - one that mirrors how we carry memory and meaning in both body and mind.

Each artwork is built slowly, with materials layered, removed, and transformed over time. Weathered textures suggest erosion, aging, the quiet labor of time. The visible surface is never the full story; there are fragments beneath - colors once vibrant now subdued, forms that shift and dissolve, gestures that remain only as a trace. Like the subconscious, much of the composition lies just below the threshold of clarity.

Circles appear as impressions - printed, stamped, or ghosted - symbolizing continuity, natural cycles, the moon, the breath, the rhythm of the seasons. Their imperfect forms hint at human touch, reinforcing the organic quality of the work. Rectangles and grids create the skeletal structure of each composition, referencing systems and boundaries - textiles, architecture, planning - while being softened, disrupted, or obscured. They become a visual metaphor for the ways we structure life, memory, society and self-understanding.

Erosion, scratches, and worn layers echo the fragile beauty of aging, transformation, and the inevitability of change. This is not decay as loss, but as evolution - surfaces giving way to reveal what lies beneath.

The process itself is meditative. It draws from my background in textile art, where each stitch, each layered thread carries intention and emotion. Though there is no literal embroidery in these works, the influence of handcraft is deeply embedded. The visual layering mimics the act of stitching - deliberate, slow, cumulative - carrying a sense of touch, patience, repetition, and rhythm. The grid structures mirror woven cloth; the layering and subtle erasures reveal traces of what was once covered. These are quiet acts of excavation - revealing, not imposing.

I often begin intuitively, led by color, texture or composition, and only later come to understand what the piece is speaking to. This mirrors how our own stories are formed - not from single, clear narratives, but from overlapping impressions, encounters, and sensations. We layer meaning over time, sometimes consciously, sometimes unknowingly.

What the Layers Hold is a meditation on what is remembered and what is forgotten, on what time erases and what it inscribes more deeply. It reflects on how time reshapes our memories - sometimes softening, sometimes sharpening them. It considers how we build frameworks to understand the world - through systems, rituals, symbols - and how those constructs can give way to something more organic, more intuitive.

This body of work reflects on nature’s quiet transformations, the tension between structure and erosion, the hidden architecture of emotion and memory, the beauty of imperfection and wear, and the slow poetry of looking closely and living deeply.