Muñoz is a Sacramento-based printmaker, zine maker and curator
who views her work as both political and spiritual. (Photo by
Marie-Elena Schembri)
Imagine spending a late morning in a quaint but colorful rooftop
garden, watching shadows of flowers dance across your sun-soaked
patio. A hummingbird darts from bloom to bloom, in and out of the
shadows as its luminous feathers glint in the sun. Now imagine
capturing the essence of this magical moment, distilling the
ephemeral beauty of shadows and the flitting energy of the
tireless hummingbird into one small 3 by 4-inch rectangle,
rendered in black and white, each detail painstakingly carved and
then slathered in black ink and pressed by palm onto sheets of
semi-translucent mulberry paper.
This is the work of Jazel Muñoz, a
Sacramento-based printmaker, zine maker and curator whose artwork
is steeped in the beauty and wonder of nature. Muñoz creates
intricate relief prints of subjects like praying mantises, fungi,
birds, butterflies and flowers from her DIY home studio, using
her hands, a spoon or a small press to create works ranging from
palm-sized to 18 by 24 inches. She also creates zines ranging
from simple to elaborate, with some involving multiple steps
including hand illustration, collage, digital manipulation and
printmaking.
A 34-year-old Folsom native, Muñoz studied art, printmaking and
photography at Folsom Lake College and Sacramento City College
before transferring to the University of California at Santa Cruz
to earn a bachelor of arts degree in printmaking.
Since moving to Sacramento in 2017, Muñoz has immersed herself in
the local art community, organizing several printmaking and zine
events, including co-coordinating the inaugural Latino Center of
Art and Culture’s Zine
Fest in May and highlighting local art as
the WAL
(Warehouse Artist Lofts) Public Market Gallery curator
since January 2023, where Muñoz is also a resident. She also
teaches art at Work of
Art, an art studio for adults with developmental disabilities
operated by 501(c)(3) nonprofit Southside Unlimited, where
she has worked for the last seven years.
For Muñoz, a Chicanx queer artist, it is important to provide
opportunities to creatives from marginalized communities, which
she also prioritizes in her curation at WAL.
“Sober Whys and Sober Highs: Q&A for Our Alcohol-Free and
Sober-Curious Friends” is a zine that answers some of the
questions people often ask Muñoz about her sobriety. (Photo by
Marie-Elena Schembri)
“I have really been focusing on marginalized forces, BIPOC and
queer folks. The last exhibition that I curated was a queer youth
artist exhibition, and a lot of the folks are often emerging
artists, or this is their first ever. They’ve been creating work
but haven’t had a space where they felt either it’s felt like
they could see themselves in, felt welcomed or honestly just been
kind of seen,” Muñoz explains.
For Muñoz, art is political. Inspired from a young age by her
family’s extensive book collection and early exposure to
political art by artists like Emory Douglas and images of the
Black Panthers, Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara and the Zapatista
Army of National Liberation in Mexico, Muñoz curates and creates
with both passion and intention.
A zine that Muñoz created in collaboration with a friend, CK,
titled, “Sober Whys and Sober Highs: Q&A for Our Alcohol-Free
and Sober-Curious Friends,” addresses the discomfort others can
feel when their friends or loved ones become sober. Fielding
common questions about their lifestyle choices, the two friends
created the zine as a playful yet informative guide to those
wondering things like, “What do you do at parties?” and “Have you
saved a ton of money?”
“Magical Being” is one of a series of prints featuring the
hummingbird, a symbol for Muñoz of the connection to loved ones
who have passed away. (Photo courtesy of Jazel Muñoz)
By not spending money on alcohol, Muñoz says she has “been able
to redistribute this money into the community.” Rather than
buying drinks while out at an event, she is able to buy band
merch or art from local artists. “That feels rewarding and feels
much better as a way that I want to redistribute my money,” says
Muñoz, who also sees her sobriety and veganism as political
choices.
Muñoz chose to become sober after the loss of her father in 2019,
and she explores both her grief and spirituality through themes
of nature in her art. Her series of hummingbird lino block relief
prints were inspired by family lore that hummingbirds are
“messengers from the beyond.”
“Seeing something like a hummingbird can make us feel almost
closer to a loved one. And also it brings joy. … If it’s around
my dad’s death anniversary or birthday, or I’m in a place where
we shared together, I will often see a hummingbird. And so I
wanted to create a series to kind of honor that, to explore it
and kind of maybe hold onto that connection that I had,” Muñoz
says.
She describes hummingbirds and butterflies, which also show up in
her art, as “free spirits” that can’t be held captive.
“It’s like these little magical beings that we can’t hold onto.
So they’re fleeting, which is, I think, also symbolic of life.
Everything is fleeting. I think through relief printing linocut,
it’s kind of allowed me to almost relinquish some control and let
go through this process.”
How were you exposed to political ideas and art at a
young age?
My dad was a very avid reader, and I felt like he had everything
as far as content for books. We had lots of books in the home.
We’d visit the library — all we had was PBS — and I feel like
because of his interest in world matters and was also just
socially political. And then, of course, my siblings.
My oldest sister actually studied communications and had some
interest in journalism, so there were books that I was seeing
that were college-level or things that were being introduced. And
because of music too, my interest in punk music and a lot of, I
guess it would be rock music. Rage Against the Machine was
somebody that I listened to in junior high; a lot of their lyrics
spoke to things.
Do you think part of it is because of your Chicanx
culture?
I will say yes. It definitely inspired that. I think a lot of it
was culturally, so having that influence at home and learning
about the Zapatistas in Chiapas Mexico, and then there’s
obviously
Emiliano Zapata, who is also a revolutionary, who I would also
see his image. So individuals like that.
I was learning who they were and also still forming my sense of
self, but I was also very spiritual. I was really interested in
Eastern philosophy and Taoism and Buddhism and kind of just this
idea of duality, some of the things that we experience in life,
but also our beliefs and my interests. So it was just a lot of
influences from different places, I feel like.
Do you think that idea of duality shows up in your
work?
I believe now, in the work that I’m conveying, it is more like
non-dualism. … It’s kind of taught in Western thought, is there’s
the dualism, there’s one or the other, and that exists in a lot
of other ways too, in gender and religion and stuff. So I kind of
was like, “OK, I don’t really fit in either-or.”
In “Spirits of the Saguaro,” one of Muñoz’s largest prints at 18
by 24 inches, intricate details emerge from hours of careful,
meditative carving. (Photo courtesy of Jazel Muñoz)
I think that the impression from my understanding is everything
is connected, and it’s also not linear. And so, I think in my
work, I like to pull from my personal experiences. And as I had
mentioned, my dad passed in 2019, and so having been able to move
back and having some inkling that my dad’s health wasn’t great
was also a push for me to be like, “Okay, he wants me closer to
home. I want to be closer to home.” And then experiencing that
loss, which was very much drawn out over a period of two years.
And in my youth and in college, I have lost friends, so I wasn’t
unfamiliar to grief.
I think I started contemplating and looking at nature and how
things are constantly growing, blooming and then wilting, dying,
and then it’s decomposing, and then that provides life again. And
so I would kind of ruminate on these facts, I feel like, and it
helped me.
Do you mind telling me why you chose to go
sober?
Yeah. So I think I kind of had gone through periods of on-and-off
drinking. And I think that I got to — it was two things — one of
them was that I got to a point where I felt that drinking wasn’t
giving to my life. I felt that I was often distracted by it and I
didn’t like the spaces that I was in that were involved in
drinking. And I felt like I wasn’t really creating authentic
connections or relationships. So that motivated me certainly. And
then the second reason is when my dad passed, I think the first
year after he passed, I didn’t know what to do with myself.
Muñoz demonstrates how she captures shadows from plants in her
garden by tracing them onto her block before carving. (Photo
courtesy of Jazel Muñoz)
It was in 2019 and then the pandemic happened. And so I think in
that span it felt like I could easily numb myself through
drinking and avoiding the feelings of grief that way. And so in
that I reflected and was like, this is not what my dad would have
wanted. And he also was someone who didn’t drink. And so I was
like, I want to honor him and myself by actually processing these
feelings, as painful as they were and are at times, right? And so
that pushed me even further. I was like, okay, I am going to do
it, and I have more reason to now because of my dad. So I’ve
stayed sober.
Do you think your sobriety has influenced or changed the
way that you make art?
I would say yes, I feel that it has. Prior to being sober and
creating work, I kind of think that what I was reflecting at the
time was the turmoil that I was internally experiencing. So not
being sober and having an outlet that at the time would be to be
social and drink and then bring that to my art. I felt like I was
still trying to find the connection there.
Muñoz’s work explores concepts of life and death, like in this
print titled “Death is Certain.” (Photo courtesy of Jazel Muñoz)
So I feel like I have a much greater understanding of what that
is now compared to when I wasn’t sober. I felt like I was just
very foggy, making work, feeling disconnected and knowing that
there was something there. I was being pulled to express myself
in this way, but still feeling a little not sure. So I would
experience moments of feeling centered and rooted through my art
practice, but then that would kind of vanish. It would slowly
dwindle or go away. Being able to create work now, sober, I’m
fully present, I think, and aware in life.
Being as involved as you are in the Sacramento art
community, what are your hopes for the future of this
community?
“I’d hope for accessible art opportunities that reduce the
barriers that many artists with disabilities face, like entry
fees, lengthy applications or having previous exhibiting
experiences. I hope for artists and curators to be compensated
for their work, which includes more resources to receive funding
that isn’t a reimbursement process. Pay artists for their work
now, not later. And most importantly, affordable studio spaces
for artists.”
Edited for length and clarity.
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