THE OFFICIAL 2027 ZOZOBRA ART CONTEST

How To Submit Your Artwork: online submissions are preferred, and your work may be considered for the poster, t-shirt or both.

Two Ways for Artists to Be Part of Zozobra

1. The Official Zozobra Art Contest, in January. This is where the year’s official poster, T-shirt and merchandise art comes from. It has to happen in winter, because the winning designs go into production so the merchandise is ready the day tickets go on sale, which for the 103rd is Tuesday, April 13, 2027. Entries are due Friday, January 29, 2027, at 5 p.m. Everything you need to enter is on this page.

2. The Zozobra Art Exhibit at ZozoFest, in summer. Missed the contest, or work in something that isn’t a poster? This one is for you. The call for artists goes out after tickets are on sale. Entry is free, every medium is welcome, and you can sell your work in front of thousands of Zozobra fans. Entries are due Monday, August 2, 2027. See the full Art Exhibit prospectus.

You can do both. Artists whose contest entries are not chosen are invited to show that same piece at ZozoFest.

One rule for both: the 103rd theme is Zozobra the Kid, an amalgamation of all the villains of the Old West, and we ask for no weapons and no guns in your artwork.

BUT REMEMBER TO USE THIS THE 103rd THEME

Go to the Entry Form ↓

Or Go to the ZozoFest Art Entry Page →

Artwork must be original and artist-created. All submissions will be reviewed for originality, and AI-generated artwork will not be accepted as valid entries.

2027 Official Zozobra 103 Poster

• Open to all artists and all ages
• Size requirement: artwork must scale to 24″ wide x 36″ high
• Image must be primarily of Zozobra
• Submission deadline: Friday, January 29, 2027, at 5 p.m.

Submit your artwork and required entry form online below.

2027 Official Zozobra 103 T-Shirt

Submit your artwork and required entry form online below.

2027 Official Zozobra 103 Youth Poster

Submit your artwork and rthe equired entry form online below

2027 Official Zozobra 103 Youth T-Shirt

Submit your artwork and the required entry form online below

The winning artwork will be seen by thousands who can’t wait to hang a new Zozobra poster on their wall or add the next 100-plus years of Zozobra t-shirts to their collection. Additional artwork will be selected for promotional content throughout the year. Winning artists receive VIP tickets to the 103rd Burning of Zozobra on Friday, September 3, 2027! Best of all, the net proceeds of poster and t-shirt sales go back to our community as grants to nonprofits that make life better for New Mexico kids!

Comprehensive Style Guide for Zozobra 2027

THE 103RD BURNING OF ZOZOBRA

Zozobra the Kid

Friday, September 3, 2027  |  Fort Marcy Park  |  Santa Fe, New Mexico

REMEMBER TO USE THE 103RD THEME: THE OLD WEST. Zozobra as the outlaw, Zozobra the Kid. The Gloomies as his gang. The Fire Spirit and the Torchbearers as the posse that rides against him.

Zozobra the Kid is not one villain. He is every Old West villain at once: the gunslinger, the rustler, the claim jumper, the crooked lawman, the card sharp, and the land-grabbing man in the good suit. He is gloom with a good reputation. The theme has Santa Fe roots. Billy the Kid sat in the Santa Fe jail and wrote letters to Governor Lew Wallace from his cell, and the Santa Fe Ring ran the Territory from a few blocks off the Plaza.

This guide covers the visual style, fashion, accessories, and cultural touchpoints that define the Old West, roughly 1865 to 1890, with New Mexico Territory at the center of it.

1. Visual Aesthetics

• Color Palette:
  • Dust, denim, and gloomy
  • Desert sunset: burnt orange, rust, ochre, and gold
  • Bandana red and turquoise sky
  • Deep tones (saddle brown, adobe, sage green, midnight blue, gunmetal) for accents
• Materials:
  • 1880s frontier clothing styles
  • Leather, denim, canvas, wool, and rawhide
  • Tooled leather, silver conchos, tin, brass, and weathered wood
• Patterns:
  • Bandana paisley
  • Wanted-poster woodblock type and handbills
  • Rope borders, brands, and barbed wire
  • Serape stripes, tooled-leather florals, and playing cards
• Setting:
  • High desert, mesas, and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains
  • Adobe walls, the Plaza, the jailhouse, the saloon, and the railroad depot
  • Piñon, chamisa, cholla, and tumbleweeds; big skies and long shadows

2. Fashion

Please remember that Zozobra is the villain, never the hero. He cannot be dressed as the good guy. The white hat and the honest badge are reserved for the posse, such as the Torchbearers. If Zozobra wears a star, it is crooked, tarnished, or stolen.

• Zozobra’s Assets
  • Black or dark cowboy hat
  • Handlebar mustache
  • Red bandana
  • Vest, with or without a pocket-watch chain
  • Lasso
  • He expects to be referred to as “the Kid”
  • He keeps a gang: the Gloomies do his dirty work
• Men’s Attire:
  • Tops: Collarless or band-collar shirts in cotton or wool, bib-front shirts
  • Vests: Wool or canvas waistcoats, often worn without a coat
  • Bottoms: Canvas or wool trousers held up with suspenders; denim and leather chaps for working cowboys
  • Coats: Long canvas dusters, sack coats, and frock coats; the good suit belongs to the banker and the land grabber
  • Footwear: High-heeled riding boots, with or without spurs
  • Headwear: Wide-brimmed felt hats, bowlers and derbies in town, sombreros on the range
  • Hair: Mustaches, sideburns, and beards; hair worn longer than city fashion
  • Neckwear: Bandana or wild rag; string ties and cravats for gamblers and townsmen
  • Lawmen: A tin star on the vest or coat. The honest star is for the posse only.
  • No Weapons!
• Women’s Attire:
  • Dresses: Calico and gingham prairie dresses with high necks and long sleeves; bustled gowns for town and Sunday
  • Separates: Shirtwaist blouses with long skirts; split riding skirts for horsewomen
  • Bodices: Fitted bodices over a corset
  • Accessories: Sunbonnets, aprons, shawls, rebozos, gloves, and cameo brooches
  • Footwear: Lace-up or button leather boots
• Vaqueros and Nuevomexicano Style:
  • The cowboy began as the vaquero. Lasso comes from lazo, chaps from chaparreras, and rodeo is a Spanish word.
  • Short jackets, sashes, wide-brimmed sombreros, botas, serapes, and silver-trimmed tack

3. Accessories

• Men: Pocket watches, playing cards and poker chips, tobacco pouches, harmonicas
• Women: Parasols, fans, lockets, and gloves

• Working and riding gear
  • Lassos and Lariats: Braided rawhide or hemp rope, the working cowboy’s most important tool.
  • Saddles and Saddlebags: Tooled leather saddles, saddlebags, bedrolls, and canteens carried everything a rider owned.
  • Spurs and Chaps: Spurs with jingling rowels, and leather chaps to protect the legs from brush and cactus.
  • Gun Belts and Holsters: Leather cartridge belts and holsters were common on the trail and frequently banned inside town limits.
  • Lanterns: Kerosene lanterns lit the trail, the jailhouse, and the depot.
  • Wanted Posters: Printed handbills with a likeness, a name, and a reward.
• A note on respect
  • The Old West was home to many peoples. Native, Hispano, Black, Chinese, and Anglo communities should be drawn as people, not as caricatures. Sacred and ceremonial dress, including headdresses, is not costume and should not appear.

4. Cultural Touchpoints

• Movies:
  • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966): Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western with Clint Eastwood and the Ennio Morricone score that defines the sound of the genre.
  • High Noon (1952): Gary Cooper as a marshal who must face a gang alone when the noon train arrives.
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969): Paul Newman and Robert Redford as charming outlaws on the run.
  • Young Guns (1988): Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War, filmed in and around Santa Fe and Cerrillos.
  • Silverado (1985): A classic posse-against-the-crooked-sheriff story, filmed in northern New Mexico.
  • Tombstone (1993): Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
  • True Grit (1969 and 2010): A determined girl hires a one-eyed marshal to track her father’s killer.
• Television:
  • The West (1996): Eight-part PBS documentary series directed by Stephen Ives and presented by Ken Burns.
  • Lonesome Dove (1989): Miniseries from the Larry McMurtry novel about two retired Texas Rangers on a cattle drive to Montana.
  • Gunsmoke (1955–1975): Marshal Matt Dillon keeps the peace in Dodge City, one of the longest-running dramas in television history.
  • Bonanza (1959–1973): The Cartwright family on the Ponderosa Ranch.
  • The Lone Ranger (1949–1957): The masked rider, the white hat, and the silver bullet.
  • Billy the Kid (2022): Dramatic series on the life of the Kid, from his childhood through the Lincoln County War.
• Music:
  • Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs (1959): Marty Robbins, including “Big Iron” and “El Paso.”
  • Ennio Morricone: The film scores for Sergio Leone’s westerns.
  • The singing cowboys: Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and the Sons of the Pioneers.
• History:
  • The Santa Fe Trail (1821–1880): The trade route that ended on the Santa Fe Plaza.
  • The Lincoln County War (1878): The New Mexico range war that made Billy the Kid famous.
  • The Santa Fe Ring: The circle of lawyers, politicians, and land speculators who dominated Territorial New Mexico.
  • Billy the Kid’s letters to Governor Lew Wallace (1879–1881): Several written from his cell in the Santa Fe jail.
  • The Kid’s Judgment Day (April 13, 1881): Billy the Kid is sentenced in Mesilla, New Mexico Territory.
• Literature:
  • The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid (1882), Pat F. Garrett: The sheriff’s own account of the outlaw he hunted.
  • The Virginian (1902), Owen Wister: The novel that set the pattern for the western hero.
  • Riders of the Purple Sage (1912), Zane Grey: The most popular western novel of its era.
  • Shane (1949), Jack Schaefer: A mysterious gunfighter defends homesteaders. Schaefer later made his home in Santa Fe.
  • True Grit (1968), Charles Portis: Mattie Ross, Marshal Rooster Cogburn, and a manhunt told in one of the great narrative voices in American fiction.
  • Lonesome Dove (1985), Larry McMurtry: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Originality

I certify that my work is an original piece of artwork and not AI-generated. Digital artwork is accepted, but AI-generated artwork will be excluded. I understand that Kiwanis wants to foster arts among our community, and it is unfair for an artist to have to compete with AI-generated imagery.

Conclusion

America’s march into the Revolutionary War is a genre that inspires creativity, patriotism, and personal expression. By reliving America’s history through films, literature, or personal projects, the possibilities are endless in this celebratory anniversary. Remember, winning artists receive VIP tickets to the 103rd Burning of Zozobra on Friday, September 3, 2027!

PLEASE READ THESE IMPORTANT DETAILS

Please remember to include an email address and cell phone number on your entry form. If we cannot reach you by email or phone, we may send text messages to contact you. By giving us your cell phone number, you agree to allow us to text you.

Electronic entries will be printed on 8.5″ x 11″ white paper for the judges to view.

Submissions can also be made by snail mail to P. O. Box 622, Santa Fe, NM 87504, but please keep in mind that mail delivery can be slow, and Kiwanis is not responsible for late or misdirected deliveries, damaged or lost mail.

Artwork can also be hand-delivered to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe/Del Norte (click on this link for map) located at 6600 Valentine Way, Santa Fe, NM 87507, Monday through Friday between 3-5 p.m. until Friday, January 29, 2027, at 5 p.m. Please enter at the main entrance with the double doors (see image below) and let the receptionist know that you are delivering Zozobra art.

Hand-delivered work must include the 2027 artist agreement and the artist is responsible for securely packaging the artwork to prevent damage or loss in transit. Arrangements for retrieving hand-delivered work will be made after all judging has been completed in April. Artists who submit hard-copy artwork are responsible for contacting us for the return of their work. Please be sure that all your contact information is on your entry form so we’re able to return your artwork to you.

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