Her Story
About Tabatha
My path has been really windy in all bunch of different ways, and definitely not straight at any point. I left my hometown after graduating high school and went to college in France and Italy to study fine arts - I'm a fine artist at the base. I finished my degree in 3D animation in the south of France because it was so much less expensive to study abroad than going to CalArts, which was like $50,000 a year, while in France it cost only three and a half or $4,000 a year. I'm also a big history buff, so I really like to learn hands-on. That started my art career over there, and then I started working in events and themed entertainment. I worked in film at the ILM Art Department in London, then with contractors on different events, and started working for an Immersive Experience Company in Normandy. It's just kind of contracting with a whole bunch of different companies that need different visuals painted for them. I've had opportunities in Los Angeles and worked on projects like the National World War II Museum's immersive experience called Expressions of America, which was probably my favorite and most influential piece I've ever done. I also helped design the last KISS tour stage and avatar design, worked on Astrolumina night walks, Mo Money Museum, and a holodeck for the MCAAD Museum in Washington, D.C. When my grandmother got sick, I came back to Carson City, Nevada to help my family take care of her. She was a professional pianist who created an amazing musician's club with the Brewery Arts Center, the artist hub of Carson City. Her dying wish was for me to get more involved with the arts and inspire other young artists to know that it's possible to have a career in art, and not just a hobby. I started volunteering at the Nevada Artists Association, and they voted me in as their president. I'm trying to get that into the 21st century and show that younger people can volunteer and get involved in the community. We're doing, for the first time, a student scholarship for $1,000, which is a ridiculous amount of work for absolutely nothing, but I'm trying to make a difference.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Tabatha
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't give in to the fear. That's the advice I was given by one of my mentors, and it is the best advice that I've ever had. When it comes to failure, failure is how you learn. It's embarrassing, but you shouldn't be embarrassed of that. The fear of failing - you're going to fail if you want to learn, so don't give in to the fear. When we give in to the fears, we're not powerful, but when we aren't afraid, we are so powerful.
02What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most thing that I find rewarding with the work I do is the ability to make people happy, make them think, and inspire them to be creative. My whole goal with women's groups, or groups in general, is to learn from others and have others learn from the mistakes that I've made that maybe I can help them with. It's mainly to support and get support from others. Sometimes there's that question that somebody asks, and you know the answer to it, but nobody else does. I also find that sometimes women are a little bit rough on each other, and I want to make sure that all women are - I mean, the women that want to be included - I think we can really be a great support system for each other and we can take some great things together.
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