Courtesy Kiwanis / burnzozobra.com / Photo by Milinda Herrera
Burning For You
Santa Fe celebrates 100 years of Zozobra
Santa Feans took their first glimpses of Zozobra during the Santa Fe Kiwanis’ ZozoFest last week—one of numerous ancillary events leading up to this year’s 100th burning. During opening night, Event Chair Ray Sandoval pointed out several of the salient features for this year’s giant puppet.
“His hair is slicked for the first time ever,” Sandoval notes. “He has a nice -little boutonnière, a silk vest.” His lapels, Sandoval adds, are cut to reflect the 1920s style.
No one should be surprised by the attention to detail. The Santa Fe Kiwanis Club, to whom Zozobra inventor, artist William Howard “Will” Shuster, Jr., bequeathed the specs for his creation in 1964, have been planning the 100th -anniversary for a decade, with an -advisory committee of more than 60 non-Kiwanis residents who met monthly over the last two years.
“I’m proud of the club,” Sandoval says, “but I’m really proud of those citizens who stepped up.”
As the legend goes, Zozobra’s birth traces to 1923 when Shuster had members of the “Los Cinco Pintores”—five painters who were part of Santa Fe’s art colony in the ‘20s—write down their woes to burn (while hanging out at La Fonda, which opened in 1922). Later that year, Shuster visited Mexico and saw the burning of an effigy as part of a Good Friday celebration. Both ideas were merged and Zozobra—a monster stuffed with gloom whose incineration signals the end of said suffering—was born in 1924. Sandoval, a Zozobra fanatic since childhood, thinks Shuster would be pleased to see his creation endure for a century. And he will pay tribute with a fireworks display that will “rival Disney,” and end with a nod to one of Shuster’s -diary entries.
“He talked about painting on the black sky,” Sandoval says, “and so the last thing that people will see is Will Shuster signing his show animated in the sky.”
Expect significant security measures for the large event and bring as little as possible onto the field. (Julia Goldberg)
The 100th Burning of Zozobra: Gates open at 4 pm and close at 8:45 pm Friday, Aug. 30. General admission: $35 advance/$40 day of Fort Marcy Park, burnzozobra.com
Courtesy Santa Fe Playhouse
Doin’ it For the Drama
Brace yourselves, Santa Fe—there’s change a-comin’: This year, the Santa Fe Playhouse’s annual Melodrama phases from a single piece to adopt a mini-show model across four shorter productions by writers Dillon Christopher Chitto, Maggie Fine, Tatiana Isabel Gil and Leonard Madrid. “These pieces aren’t actually just for Santa Fe,” says director Stephanie Grillo, a theater professor at the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College. “We still make fun of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but also New Mexico culture as a whole.” Grillo directs all four shows, btw, and says that while she appreciates locals might balk at a slight change to tradition, progress is good. “We don’t want to pull the rug out from beneath anyone,” she says, “but I don’t think it’s about changing—I think it’s about growing.” (Alex De Vore)
The Melodrama: 7:30 pm Thursday, Aug. 29-Saturday, Aug. 31; 2 pm Sunday, Sept. 1. $3-$60. Santa Fe Playhouse 142 E De Vargas St., (505) 988-4262
Courtesy evokecontemporary.com
A Wilder Side of Nature
Multimedia artist Irene Hardwicke Olivieri’s upcoming exhibit Honey in the Desert leads viewers into a world as vibrant and alive as Mother Earth herself. Olivieri’s work depicts surrealistic figures and worlds where animals and nature serve in “rewilding the heart”— an ongoing theme in her work. Olivieri’s paintings on wood spark a wild and colorful journey of the imagination, and her use of materials like cholla cactus skeletons and owl-digested mouse bones recontextualize how we perceive natural beauty. “I love the idea of making an alluring woman,” Olivieri says, “and then you get up close and you realize she’s made out of mouse bones.” (Adam Ferguson)
Irene Hardwicke Olivieri: Honey in the Desert: 5 pm Friday, Aug. 30. EVOKE Contemporary 550 S Guadalupe St., (505) 995-9902
Courtesy Museum of International Folk Art
Like An Animal
The Museum of International Folk Art tops our Best of Santa Fe list for Best Museum year after year, and for the regular patrons it’s easy to see why—not only does the Museum Hill mainstay kick out fascinating shows on the regular, it engages artists with community pretty much at all times. This week, that engagement comes in the form of the Animal Paint Fest with artist Ron Archuleta Rodriguez. The workshop runs in tandem with the museum’s Wooden Menagerie on Parade exhibit of painted animals, and participants can either join Archuleta Rodriguez for a group wooden animal painting project, or they can make their own. Even better? The museum will provide the supplies and the event falls on one of those free first Sunday admission days for NM residents. (ADV)
Animal Paint Fest with Ron Archuleta Rodriguez: 1-3 pm Sunday, Sept. 1. Free. Museum of International Folk Art 706 Camino Lejo, (505) 476-1204
