Miniature Zozobras are popping up all over

Jun. 3—Zozobra is multiplying — and we're not talking about his arithmetic skills.

More than 30 miniature Zozobra statutes — about the size of a 6- or 7-year-old child — have popped up around Santa Fe in anticipation of this year's centennial burning of Zozobra on Aug. 30.

They've already taken root in sites throughout town, including True West, the Manitou Galleries, the lobby of the SkyFire Restaurant at Bishop's Lodge and Santa Fe Community College.

The artistic creations are not actual offspring of Old Man Gloom, but rather the children of a raft of visual artists taking part in a group show built around a Zozobra theme — though right now the little Zozos are all in separate places.

The statues will come together in one big exhibition in mid-July at Santa Fe Community Convention Center before being auctioned off to the highest bidder, said Lisa Keating, executive director of the Santa Fe Gallery Association.

The money raised will go to the artists, the gallery association and the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe, which hosts the annual burning of Zozobra, she said.

"This [the creation of Zozobra] was something started by a group of artists 100 years ago and having a new band of artists come back and reinvent Zozobra today is super exciting," she said.

All the artists worked with a roughly four-foot tall fiberglass frame modeled after Zozobra's body. While the artists had some creative room to alter the basic body, the guidelines ensured they could not go too crazy when it came to lopping off Old Man Gloom's appendages.

"Artists could cut it into pieces as long as they put all the pieces back into the piece of art," she said. "So you could have a headless Zozobra if he was holding his head in his arms."

Thus, artist John P. Cordova's take on Zozobra envisions the big guy making a break for freedom on a bicycle that protrudes from its belly. One of the hands has been cut off, but Cordova attached it to the left shoulder of Old Man Gloom with a small "100" sign perched on the tip of the index finger.

"This has been happening for 100 years so he is trying to escape being burned," said Cordova, a sculpture technician at the Santa Fe Community College, where the work is on display.

In real life, he said, he doesn't see Zozobra ever pulling off a successful getaway.

"I think the city of Santa Fe knows something good when it sees it, so I don't think there will be any escaping," he said.

Artist David Copher's Zozobra at True West Gallery downtown has a Día de los Muertos motif, right down to the death mask painted on its face and the skull imagery covering its body.

If Copher's piece represents the darkest side of the Zozobra saga, then landscape artist Calla Klessig Sentic Zozobra in Bloom sculpture at Bishop's Lodge represents one of the lightest.

Colorful flowers and a blue skyscape cover the sculpture, which "captures the lightness and potential for growth after we expel our gloom," the artist said, referring to the glooms — collected on slips of paper or official documents and often related to personal problems — stuffed into the large-scale Zozo.

Artist Ernst Gruler of Materiality also offers a different take, basically turning Zozobra into a bright lamp.

"I feel like a gloom buster," he said of his creation, which has an androgynous look to it and lights up like a Christmas tree when plugged in.

Zozobra de Los Cuervos, by Comanche artist Nocono Burgess of the Manitou Galleries imagines ravens helping Zozobra's scorched remains take flight once the torch has done the job.

"Burnt ashes, body parts — ravens are omnivores so they can take what they can get," Burgess said.

Many artists taking part in the show said they had not yet seen the Zozobra work other artists have done. But they will once the statues all come together in the group exhibition at the convention center from July 12 through Labor Day weekend.

Meanwhile, folks can see each of the sculptures on a self-guided tour. A Zozobra art map should be available at every locale, Keating said.

Sentic — who will be going to see Zozobra's burning for the first time this year — said she is excited to see more Zozobras around town.

"What a wonderful way to celebrate the 100th burning of Zozobra, having so many artists put their own individual take on it," she said.