Whether horror, adventure, or autobiographical, her work seeks to push back against the need for assimilation in American and western culture. She has currently completed one animated short film, “De Yojoa, Con Amor”, that studies the process of understanding her Honduran heritage through cooking her mother’s chicken soup recipe. She also has plans for more Honduran-based animated projects, and is specifically hoping to animate traditional Lenca stories.
Tanisha currently works as an art curator and event planner with the Student Unions and Activities’ Arts and Culture Committee at the University of Minnesota. She has curated multiple art exhibitions featuring student, local, and international artists of various mediums. She has also taken part in four published art zines and three group art exhibitions. Most recently, she was featured in the 2021 online “Worldbuilding” exhibition with the Regis West Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Director Statement
I’m a Honduran American Digital Illustrator and 2D Animator who focuses on storytelling, character design and worldbuilding that explores the intersection of gender, sexuality and Latine identity. My work reflects the warmth and comfort of reconnecting with identity, instead of the pain of alienation that comes with being mixed race. I am currently focusing on my experience as a biracial Honduran woman in my short 2D animated film: “De Yojoa”, Con Amor. This film seeks to create an intimate space as I cook my mother’s traditional Honduran chicken soup recipe. Cooking Honduran dishes has taught me to rethink my identity; the warmth of each recipe reflects the idea that I too am a beautiful mixture in one dish. As I animate, my work illustrates the intimacy of each recipe step, emphasizing the importance of experience in identity over blood quantum. In the animation, the camera follows each step of the process in detail, furthering this intimacy. With a high focus on my hands, ingredients, and cooking utensils, the animation gives the viewer the sense of being a part of the process. It imitates how I learned to cook Honduran dishes: by watching my mother. Instead of recording recipes, Hondurans pass down their practice through oral tradition between women. The viewer is the next step in this process, watching and listening as I did growing up. They too, are welcomed by the feeling of comfort and peace that comes with this learning.
My work also strives to bring forth the illusion of a Honduran space, like how Hayao Miyazaki is able to bring a strong connection to the worlds he has created in his films. The beautiful painterly landscapes in his animations influence my own work, specifically how they produce a living painting effect. In my own work, I use a soft paint and sketchbook style to give a sense of realism to my art. My linework is heavily referenced from calligraphy and ink sketching, with varying line widths and a flowing style. Much of my coloring imitates watercolor paint: using the bright and warm colors of Honduras’ green jungles, orange sunshine, and pink blooms. Space becomes a tangible experience in my art. In both linework and color, my use of patterns and details in Latine based settings and design creates compelling imagery that alludes to a world much deeper than what the viewer may understand. My art is focused on the beauty of these unfamiliar worlds. Instead of illustrating the cultural differences, I want to reflect on the beauty and comfort that creating connection brings. My focus on the Latine experience is a reclamation of my heritage and a peaceful defiance of the process of Americanization and racism my mother and other Latine families face while living in the United States. Growing up, I was often told to choose if I am white or catracha, American or Honduran. My art illustrates how I can be both.
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