Los Cínaros
Los Cínaros
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by María Zamora
"Los Cínaros is a portal that transports me back to the rich lands of El Valle, an area in the mountains of Mérida, Venezuela. While crafting this piece, I spent hours daydreaming about the moments I got to spend growing up there.
Piece by piece, I patched together this magical but fragile haven, a temporary escape back to my roots through my imagination. Suddenly, I found myself there again, hidden amidst the pointy leaves of the begonias and irises, underneath the tangled branches of the cínaro trees, discovering sleepy frogs in the center of the bromeliad plants, and staring in awe at spider webs sparkling with dew.
Immersed in this world, I lost myself among the countless stitches, the mountains of fabric scraps and batting, and swirling ink textures. Through my craft, I am slowly mending the wounds caused by the abrupt departure from the place where I grew up. I am threading new paths, in a different home, while learning to navigate through the ongoing tension and uncertainties forever tied to my country of birth.
This tapestry would not have been possible without the support from Pratt Fine Arts Center and Seattle Print Arts, the immense generosity of M Dellinger, and the guidance of Jason Taylor. Special thanks to Rachael Lang and Caitlyn Edson for the invitation to showcase my work at the Alcove, an opportunity that ignited the motivation to create this piece. Los Cínaros is dedicated to my family, who instilled in me an appreciation for the natural world and always encouraged me to pursue visual arts. I also want to extend my gratitude to all of my friends, my students, and teachers, whose company throughout these years continues to make Seattle feel like home." ~María
Material: Fabric, ink
Dimensions: 45 x 51 in.
María Zamora is an interdisciplinary Visual Artist who began her art studies at the Universidad de Los Andes (Mérida, Venezuela) and later received her BA with Honors from the University of Washington in 2020. In 2022, María also completed a screen printing apprenticeship at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia to further develop a new area of artistic interest with textiles.
Since taking her first screen printing class remotely during the 2020 lockdown, María has devoted the last five years of her studio time to creating screen prints in paper and fabric. Drawn by the dance-like movements, physically demanding process, puzzling color layers, and problem-solving qualities of screen printing, this has become her favorite medium to explore because there will always be something new to fail at, learn from, and improve.
Through intricate, multi-layered prints, María shares anecdotes, reflections, and memories of her journey as a Venezuelan migrant. With abundant textures and bold color palettes, she recreates surreal landscapes that exaggerate and evoke elements of the Venezuelan flora and fauna. Her colorful pieces celebrate her heritage while also addressing complex topics such as migration, nostalgia, and displacement. Currently, María teaches screen printing classes at Pratt Fine Arts Center, and continues to learn more about this medium through apparel screen printing as a shop assistant and ink mixer at Ink Knife Press.
