We recently connected with Tatiana Abraham Siqueff and have shared our conversation below.

Tatiana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Being an international student in the USA, most of the time, means you really took a risk by moving countries for your education. But for art? People back in Mexico told me all the time “Wouldn’t you be happier to just stay here and take a normal career that can give you some basic skills?” or “Are you really willing to leave your family behind in that way?”
They do not know that “taking a risk” is named like that for a reason. I do miss my family but I am closer with them now than ever before! And my career in animation and fabrication really open many opportunities and made me prove myself that taking the risk to be myself was more than worth it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hello! I am Tatiana Abraham Siqueff, I was born and raised in Merida Yucatan, Mexico. Since I was very young I always loved hand crafts and I was really more in the creative side all my years through school. I also learned very quickly that I liked math a lot.
When it was time to choose a career I was very confused… As for what I knew at the time, I wanted to create art! But the universities back home did not offer what I really had in mind.
When I introduced the option of studying in the USA, my mom was trying to be supportive but I knew deep down she did not wanted me to go. But I knew what I wanted and my dreams came before where I was comfortable .

I fabricate environments (sets) and props for Stop Motion animation. M senior short film called Symbiotic was one of the biggest challenges and learning opportunity I have ever had. And I am very proud of the outcome. As I discover this industry is the best proper mix of traditional fabrication and modern fabrication! We used woodworking skills the base and skeleton of our sets, some traditional sculpting/silicone molding/smooth-cast casting for the majority of organic props and 3D modeling and printing for some of the more complicated props. And I am happy I got to experience something that big in my senior year of college.

I am really drawn to any fabrication job, as for me the project itself is enough inspiration to keep me fabricating! Inspiration is a big thing for me, I get exited by the final outcome of the project and that makes me keep going to complete and pursue it to the finish. In my years studying in SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) I encountered many talented people all around every building. Talented writers, visionary illustrators, amazing animators, and on my field, with confidence, I can say I know exactly the group of people I want to be working with.

At some point, I do want to go back to Merida. I feel all the knowledge I am getting and all the abilities I am learning and will learn are worth teaching. I feel my final goal of being in the industry is to “get paid to make amazing stuff” and that aligns perfectly with my personal goal of passing my abilities to other creative people that are exited to start in this industry. I want to inspire people the same way other have inspired me.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I feel support and appreciation of their work is one of the best ways to create the perfect ecosystem of big artists. Mostly, because there are people who feel art is not really an acceptable way of “income” or “success”. But they could not be more wrong! Art has been showing us all kinds or reflection from our real world. You can use art to transmit anything your heart pleases!
Your mind and creativity come first in this case, and if you do not feel that someone close to you supports you on the way you like, there are more people like you that I can assure can’t wait to meet your talent!

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I learned earlier that there is no “wrong way” to create art. You do not have a professional canvas? You can surely pant anywhere!
You do not know the proper way to make something work? Do some tests! explore more options that can lead you to the answer. And if for some reason you did not got to the answer, I bet you discover a bunch of other stuff that can help you around other stuff!
You did not study what you really wanted? How does that career can push you to the way you want to go?

I can assure there is always a way to get to the industry!     

Contact Info:

• Website: abrahamtatiana.com
• Instagram: not_your_regular_mexican
• Linkedin: Abrahamtatiana