The techniques used to make these films involve creating every visual element from scratch. Characters, textures, backgrounds, and text are made by hand carving each piece out of linoleum, hand printing it onto paper, and then cutting it out, arranging, and shooting it frame by frame. There may be sewn pieces or extra attachments used to create movement. Using a range of paper types and green screen techniques to overlay background photos, she finds inspiration in being able to bring her ideas to life through small-scale filmmaking. By working in such a hands-on way, she is able to run her own home film studio, which allows her to have complete creative control over her work while pushing her to be inventive and resourceful.
Rodriguez is inspired to create by lived experiences and uses her artwork to tell stories to the viewer. They are often playful, but her work also explores themes such as insomnia, hoarding, grief, and loss. She is inspired by women filmmakers who have found creative ways to make their work using animation and film, such as Lotte Reiniger, who made her films entirely with shadow art and cut paper.
She holds a BFA degree from the University of Colorado, studied art at the Escuela de Artes Plasticas (UNAM) in Mexico City, and also attended the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK. Rodriguez has exhibited her animations in Denver at Side Show Studios, Optica Lingua Studio, Night Lights Denver, Longmont Out Loud, and at her space, Real Eyes Studios. Her animations have been selected for film festivals in Denver, Portugal, and Germany.
When not creating art, she can be found schlepping tools at the Denver Tool Library and aiding in historic haunted cemetery tours. As she continues to grow as an artist, she looks forward to continuing to learn new mediums and incorporate them into her films and work.
Artist Statement
I have always thought of making art as a tool to communicate and connect with people. The strange, creative happenings in my head are able to find a home in my art. It is for this reason that I love sharing what I create with others. It is because I am sharing a piece of myself with the world, and it is through this that I am seen.
I create animations through a process that I call Handprinted Movies, where I hand carve the images from rubber, creating a stamp, which I use to make prints on paper with ink. I then cut out each piece and move them by hand, photographing each shot to create a stop-motion film. One minute of animation is composed of hundreds of photographs. I view my films as a kind of visual language, and the elements and techniques I have are my tools. In sequencing my animations, each piece flows into the next as a visual representation of events in a narrative timeline. I employ symbols, color, movement, sequencing, and transitions as methods of storytelling.
I am a big proponent of DIY aesthetic and technique. My work wouldn’t exist without it. Since everything is done by hand, there is an imperfection to what I make that becomes a part of it. I make what I know, what I can think of, try, combine, and discover. The forms that my practice has taken have, at times, arisen out of conditions. When I have a smaller space, I tend to work small, and when I have a larger space, I can make a mess in, my work might expand. I believe that invention can arise out of limitations, and I enjoy finding ways to work with what is in front of and available to me as it often challenges me to forge paths I might not otherwise have considered.
My animations express a range of ideas, from very personal experiences exploring grief, loss, and trauma to playful absurdism with fantastical creations. In the process of making and bringing my work to life, I find transformation as stories take on a new form through a visual language. I believe there is power and healing in re-framing experiences through art. I invite the viewer into an escape from the ordinary and to find their own interpretations when viewing my work.
