Meet Michelle Marakasherry | 3D Lighting Artist & Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Marakasherry and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, and grew up there for most of my life till I had to leave for college; so up until then, I lived in a kind of a bubble where Indonesia was my whole world. But it was great; to me, it was peaceful and full of warm memories of me and my friends and family. My mother was Indonesian, and my father was Indian, so I had these two wonderfully different and rich backgrounds that I was constantly surrounded by my whole life.
No one in my family was necessarily an artist, but my father, in particular, never restrained me from doing what I wanted to do, even if it was ‘unconventional’ to pursue art. I was always a quiet kid, and I felt like I had a lot to say but just didn’t have the means to say it. I found my voice through art, and when my mom saw this, she also supported me.

In high school, my best friends were huge film junkies, from experimental film to silent, black & white films, they had such expansive taste it opened me to a world of storytelling and to what kind of stories I wanted to tell. It was not hard to notice that none of the movies we watched ever had people who looked like us or shared the same experience as us; it made that bubble feel isolating. When I moved to the US to pursue 3D animation, I knew that I wanted to make and tell stories about where I was from and the people that belong there. I wanted to make them feel seen.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve grown to love making art of from where I’m from (Indonesia). I used to be scared of it because I knew people were unfamiliar with what Indonesia was really like and I was afraid they would reject the unfamiliar but I attended a talk with Phillipino Artist & Director Bobby Pontillas who was successful and all his work was about his culture and people loved it, he was so passionate and happy about drawing how he grew up I decided to try it too and I got hooked. I understood what he meant by the importance of representation in Animation, and ever since I have loved interpreting Indonesian culture in the animation medium.
Of course, when I started, my fears proved true, there were people who did not connect with my work because they knew nothing of Indonesia and simply did not care for it. Of course, that hurt more as my home and where I was from were personal to me, but then there were people who got excited about it and encouraged me to make more art about my culture, and that kept me going. Making art that reflected where I was from healed the inner child in me that never saw representation of myself as a child.

I am most proud of my thesis film “Hair for You”, which was an Indonesian Animated Short film I completed in school with my teammates Tien Pham & Jihye Kim. The film took 2 years to make, but I had the story since I was in high school, and it was a dream come true to make that story into a reality. That story was a love letter to my home and to the women in my family. Making an Animated film in itself is a difficult task, but making one about Indonesia was even more difficult as we had nothing to refer to as there were no Indonesian CG films that were to the calibre of what we wanted. There were many times that I felt the film was “too Indonesian” or “not Indonesian enough” as I felt the need to please everyone. I realized that I’m never going to please everyone and that pleasing everyone meant pleasing no one at all. I always remembered this film, at the end of the day, was made by and for Indonesians to see themselves in a film.

I love and strive to tell universal stories with specificity, and I think my first film was a step towards that dream, and I hope to continue to tell more of these stories in the future.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is so tough; as an international student, I always feel like I’m playing tourist myself despite all the years being here, but I got to take a trip to San Francisco with my partner there for a bit, and it was one of my favorite places so far!

I loved getting to take the Ferry to San Francisco, it’s fun to see all the sights and the bridges while having the wind blow through your hair. It takes you right to the port where there’s food and all the trams and small markets where you can buy handcrafts and trinkets (I’m a fan of trinkets).

That also leads you within walking distance of Chinatown, where (depending on the season) you can catch lion dances or just enjoy some boba and Asian snacks and take pictures. You can hop on a bus that will take you to Japan Town, which is my favorite because the cold and the fog and the architecture really make it feel like you are in actual Japan. Catch a movie, and head to any of the izakaya bars open in the area for a drink to end the night!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I think every single person in my life, from Jakarta to America, plays an important part in my story, from my mother and father, who have and always will support me, to all my friends, old and new. I am so incredibly grateful for all the relentless support I received along my journey. It’s what makes you keep going when you want to give up, and for that, I will always appreciate it. But I always want to shoutout my hometown Jakarta and the people in it.

I always shoutout my childhood best friend, Fio. I’ve been friends with her since the 2nd grade and she’s seen me grow and change. She always supported me in everything I did, always, without question and always with the strongest resolve. From an early age, She made me believe I could do anything because she believed it too. Fio was also the first person I finally confided in about my depression and who urged me to seek help to better my mental health. If it were not for her, I would not have sought help for the depression I was suffering from at the time, and I wouldn’t have been able to overcome the things that I did that would have prevented me from achieving everything I have done today.

Your mental health is important and valid. You should never feel ashamed or feel bad for wanting to seek help and want to feel better. Before you are an artist, you are a person. A person that your friends and family love and care about, and want to help, and those people who love and care are those who deserve a million shoutouts and more!

Website: https://michellemarakasher.wixsite.com/mysite-1

Instagram: @mish.mov

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-marakasherry/

Image Credits
“Hair for You” –
Tien Pham – Lead Environment Artist, Look Development, Producer
Jihye Kim – Lead Animation and Character Technical Director