As a child Rodriguez spent a lot of time watching and drawing the Hannah-Barbara cartoons that she saw via television. Later, during her pre-teen years, she became interested in comic books and publications such as MAD Magazine. The observations that she made during these early years have greatly influenced her work today. "My love for cartoons led me to create my own "estilo" [style] and language based on my own images. Many of my drawings, paintings, and woodcarvings deal with issues around real and stereotyped female empowerment of sexuality and politics. The cartoons that I make, both juvenile and adult, seduce viewers into understanding the female language I created using symbols and metaphors."

After Rodriguez completed her BFA at the University of Kansas she left for California in order to pursue her Masters at the San Francisco Art Institute. After she had completed half of her studies at SFAI, Rodriguez decided that she would rather discontinue school in order to find her own real personal style. "I spent years developing my own style, taking notes from tattoo art, prison art, early low brow artists like Big Daddy Roth, and Robert Williams, feminist art, protest art, and other underground comics."

To date, Isis Rodriguez has given various lectures, been published, has received grants and awards for outstanding work, had several solo exhibitions and performances, a host of group exhibitions, and has been granted several commissions for public art projects. Throughout all of this, however, she has remained focused upon women's issues. "The heart and soul of my art has activist undertones, with a satirical slant to many of my pieces that protest injustices from a female perspective. For example, the few words that I do use, FTW (For the Women) and LMA (Little Miss Attitude) are secret codes to communicate to women in particular. Much of what I paint is directly from my own personal experiences. What interests me about my art is the creation of a female language made up of symbols and images in hopes of establishing a woman's voice without any apologies." Isis is continuing her work in San Francisco where she currently resides.