Recap of Past Participants & Winners of the
Zozobra Poster and Tee-shirt Contest 2018 – 2022
With only one year to go to the 100th anniversary of Will Shuster’s burning of Zozobra, the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe is seeking submissions for Official Poster and T-shirt images for this 99th Burning of Will Shuster’s Zozobra. The deadline for submitting your entry for consideration is Friday, March 17, 2023!
We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
New Mexico’s communities really rise to the occasion for each year’s annual art contest and the artists are showcased on the Zozobra tickets website. For the winners, the pleasure of creating a personal vision of Zozobra is a hot thrill when their artwork is seen on hundreds of collectible posters and T-shirts.
Of course, this annual contest is not just about the winners – we value every submission we receive and appreciate the efforts of all our past poster, t-shirt and ticket art participants who truly personify the diversity and richness of the poster art form. It is remarkable to look back across the decades and see the growth and breadth of human experience through our artists’ depictions of Old Man Gloom as he comes to artistic life over each successive decade of New Mexico’s cultural history.
We are in the final year of The Decade Project, which every year since 2014 has featured the decades of Zozobra’s existence in sequential order from the 1924 creation of New Mexico’s favorite monster. This year, Kiwanis invites you to celebrate the era of the millennial 2000s and 2010s in your poster, t-shirt and ticket poster designs. For more information, please visit our guidelines page here.
Over the years, we’ve had some truly exceptional winners and participants, and we want to take a moment to celebrate their achievements and encourage you to join their ranks.
Last year’s Zozobra art highlighted the 1990s, with a whole host of instantly recognizable 90s icons on Bobby Sandoval’s official poster, and the memorable Zozobra Baby ticket poster created by Mike Graham De La Rosa riffed on Nirvana’s iconic baby-in-the-water album cover. The year 2022 also brought us Jim Cruz’s take on the Matrix for the official t-shirt and Felix Medrano’s winning youth t-shirt design featuring The Dastardly Zozobra on a NM Comix cover.
So many ways to win means we have so many winners!
Here are the Zozobra Art Content winners in every category over the last five years
by Bobby Sandoval
Official Poster, Bobby Sandoval
Youth Poster, Su Walker
Tee Shirt, Jim Cruz
Youth Tee Shirt, Felix Medrano
ZozoFest Poster, Robert Lorenz
Ticket Poster Artist, Mike Graham de La Rosa
Ticket Artists: Rena Manning/Bob Boucher (collaborative pair)
Esteban Gonzalez, Jennifer M. Gutierrez
Nevaeh Apodaca, Jessica Knox, Joseph Montoya,
Paris Villegas, Juan Acevedo,
The Ferran/Spengler/Rutter Trio
by Gabriel Garcia
Official Poster, Gabriel Garcia
Youth Poster, Jade Perea
Tee Shirt, Angel Del Frate
“I try to communicate messages of unity in our differences and self-improvement.”
Youth Tee Shirt, Jaden Love, aspiring Research Physicist at NMSU
ZozoFest Artist, Allen Hopkins
“If you ask him if he’s into fitness at all, he’ll say, yes, fitness entire pizza in my mouth!”
The year(s?) of La Corona brought us Joshua Gonzales’ winning 2020 Official Poster with his “Why you should tell your story like a Caveman!” augmented reality and animated 3D pop-upsstyle. Check it out, and Estrella Romero took home the gold for the Student Poster.
by Joshua Gonzales
2020 (The Decades Project on pause for the pandemic)
Official Poster, Joshua Gonzales
Tee shirt, Daniel McCoy
Youth Poster, Estrella Romero
Youth Tee Shirt, Saul Soltero
Official Zozobra Art Exhibit Image, Russell Thornton
Event Information Artist, Michael Martinez, the 2016 official tee shirt winner
Zozobra Pop-up Centerpiece Artist, Sally Blakemore
by Nikolas Duran-Geiger
2019 (1970s)
Official Poster, Nikolas Duran-Geiger “I’m a New Mexican artist who paints outcasts, ghouls and disreputable characters.”
Official T-shirt Virginia Asman, Saturday Night Fever style disco dancer with racing auto flames “AncientWorks”.
Art Deco Poster, inspired by the exuberance and experimentation of the 1970s, Bradley Gard (former featured artist of Zozofest).
Youth Poster, Che Kueffner
Youth Tee shirt, Lucia Berdejó-Leitner
Ticket poster, Phyllis Roybal, an iconic lava lamp
by Amy Cordova
2018 (1960s)
Official Poster, Amy Cordova, Light My Fire.
Official Tee, David DiJanni “When I think of art from the sixties, I think of the psychedelic Fillmore Auditorium posters and their elaborately ornate lettering.”
Youth Poster, Jose Ruvalcaba Rascon.“Drawing Zozobra and winning was a surprise and an accomplishment that I didn’t expect. In drawing Zozobra, it came as a challenge, and it helped me to relax. Zozobra is made of gloom, and I see him as a way to release my own gloom. It was a random thing for me to do, and I am happy.”
Youth tee by Marcos Martinez. At age 4, he was part of a team that stuffed Zozobra and watched the gigantic marionette assembled at Santa Fe Place Mall.
Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a budding talent, you can see that all voices and visions are celebrated with the burning of Old Man Gloom. Your Zozobra design could be the one that inspires the next 100 years of letting go of our worries and celebrating life and happiness together in northern New Mexico.
