Lilly Marie Rodriguez, known by her artist name Isis RodrÃÂguez, is an American contemporary painter who uses the cartoon as a conceptual tool to explore womens' empowerment and liberation. Combining classical realism with the contemporary influences of cartoons, tattoos, and graffiti, her work bridges high and low art. Her hybrid style expresses new possibilities for female identity and spirituality. Judy Chicago and Edward Lucie Smith highlight Rodriguez as one of the few female artists to ever discuss the sex industry in her work and Sherri Cullison includes Rodriguez among the most noteworthy American women artists of the 20th century.
RodrÃÂguez has exhibited work in numerous solo and group shows in the United States, Mexico, and Argentina, including Bay Area Now in San Francisco and the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato. Her art is featured in two documentaries: Blind Eye to Justice: HIV+ Women in CaliforniaâÂÂs Prisons (Carol Leigh, 1998) and Live Nude Girls Unite! (Julia Query, 2000).
Rodriguez has been called both a feminist and a Chicana. In Women and Art: Contested Territory, Judy Chicago and Edward Lucie Smith emphasize Rodriguezâ feminist message, and Mix: Independent Art and Culture called her a âÂÂcultural sniper for the feminist movement.â Chican@ Art Magazine featured her art on the cover of its Fall 2006 edition, and Lowrider Arte called her âÂÂthe closest thing to a Chicana cartoon goddess that youâÂÂll find living in Alta CaliforniaâÂÂ.
On her website, however, Rodriguez identifies herself in depoliticized terms using Gloria AnzaldúaâÂÂs term mestiza: âÂÂa woman of mixed race who synthesizes multiple cultural and artistic influences.âÂÂ
Rodriguezâ art is sexual, sometimes graphically so. Sherri Cullison says of Rodriguezâ work: âÂÂIsis feels she is free to use her privilege to tease, and she does it with acrylic electroshock therapy conceived in true street-level, riot grrl style.â Judy Chicago says of Rodriguezâ 1996 painting âÂÂNo Moreâ (a nude woman with a snarling tiger emerging from her vagina): âÂÂ[W]hile being able to celebrate the freedom of younger women artists like Isis Rodriguez, I have to⦠acknowledge the discomfort that this image causes me.âÂÂ
Rodriguezâ art is highly symbolic. Often, her paintings redefine traditional symbols. When a male reporter from Despertar de Oaxaca criticized Rodriguezâ use of ski masks in her series âÂÂLa Mujer Enmascarada,â assuming it was an anachronic reference to zapatismo, Rodriguez countered, âÂÂ[T]he mask depends on your history and your personal experience. Maybe to you it represents zapatismo, but to an Esquimo it represents protection from the cold.â In 1999 Rodriguez told Artsy, âÂÂWhat interests me about my art is the creation of a female language made up of symbols and images in the hopes of establishing a womanâÂÂs voice without any apologies.âÂÂ
Another hallmark of Rodriguezâ art is her frequent use of cartoons. In her early work, underground-style cartoons allow Rodriguez to make satirical commentaries about womenâÂÂs issues. A good example is the painting âÂÂFreedomâ from the series âÂÂMy Life as a Comic Stripperâ that pokes fun at the âÂÂMadonna/Whore complexâÂÂ: a cartoon exotic dancer fantasizing about the Virgen de Guadalupe and a Harley Davidson, while male cartoon patrons such as Homer Simpson, Krusty the Clown, and Scooby Doo shower her with cash.
In her later paintings, Rodriguez uses cartoons conceptually, rather than satirically. The oil and pastel series âÂÂEnter With Discretionâ (previously called âÂÂLa Mujer EnmascaradaâÂÂ), features a realistically painted woman accompanied by a cartoon girl, challenging traditional distinctions between âÂÂhighâ and âÂÂlowâ art. In Rodriguezâ artist statement, she says: âÂÂThe cartoon is an elegant, minimalistic drawing of the realistic figure, and the realistic figure is just an over-rendered cartoon.âÂÂ
She also mentions that cartoons have a spiritual symbolism: âÂÂCartoons can guide us toward our inner fantasies, where we often retreat to cope with our conflicts.âÂÂ
While living in San Francisco, Rodriguez worked as an exotic dancer with several strip clubs, including the Lusty Lady, Century Theatre, Mitchell Brothers, and the Crazy Horse. Many of her early paintings criticize the strip club industry for its materialism and exploitation. Rodriguez donated use of her painting "Be All You Can Be" (a satirical army ad spoofing womenâÂÂs limited gender roles) to the stripper rights organization Live Nude Girls Unite, which fought to reduce club stage fees and mandate safe working conditions for dancers. She was one of more than 500 plaintiffs in the 1994 class action lawsuit against the Mitchell Brothers, which was settled in the dancersâ favor for $2.85 million in 1998.
Rodriguez was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised in Topeka, Kansas. She is the daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and a Mexican father.
Rodriguez earned a bachelor of fine arts in painting from the University of Kansas in 1988 and went on to study for a year at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Rodriguez lived in San Francisco until 2008, when she moved to Mexico. She currently lives in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.
Rodriguez is the co-author with Alfonso López de Anda of independent bilingual comic series NiñajÃÂ. The comic was inspired by the Oaxaca<nowiki/>n legend of DonajÃÂ, a princess who died in a war between the Mixtecs and the Zapotecs. Niñajàtells the story of a pre-Hispanic princess who is assassinated in a conflict between rival shamans, then reborn 500 years later to share her indigenous values with modern Mexico. âÂÂWhat makes our comic very special is the fact that it is spiritually based, from an indigenous perspective,â Rodriguez told the San Miguel de Allende newspaper Atención.