Style Imitating Art | Doña Maclovia Zamora by Nani Chacon

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

It was my turn to choose our artwork and I wanted to explore the works of an indigenous American artist because I have always been drawn to the culture and religious beliefs of the native peoples of North America. Over two years ago, I shared traditional beadwork by Cherokee artist Martha Berry for one of these challengesso I think enough time has elapsed to share another artist who focused on celebrating native North American people. 

The Artwork

Doña Maclovia Zamora by Nani Chacon

About the Artist: Nani Chacon

Nanibah “Nani” Chacon is an American painter of Diné and Chicana descent. She was born on June 26, 1980, in Gallup, New Mexico, and raised on the Navajo reservation. When she was 15 years old, Nani began creating graffiti and street art which transitioned to painted murals 10 years later. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of New Mexico in 2003 and became a member of the Honor the Treaties collective, a nonprofit design lab for artists who create work that reflects Native peoples’ rights and land issues.

Chacon’s work spans various mediums including painting, illustration, installation, and design with the goal of her public works being to facilitate social discourse and community integration. Her work explores important issues that affect indigenous peoples while bringing attention to her culture and its history.

In 2012, she was commissioned by the City of Albuquerque to create a piece for the Wells Park Rail Corridor Mural Project. Her mural for this project, She Taught Us to Weave, is equipped with a low-power radio transmitter that broadcasts the words Hozho naahaslii, which means “the intrinsic value of living beautifully” in Navajo. Since the completion of her first mural painting, Chacon has created 22 additional murals and they are all stunning.

She currently resides in Albuquerque with her son where she maintains her career as a painter, muralist, teacher, and activist. She exhibits her work internationally and continues to receive commissions and other creative collaboration opportunities.

About the Art: Doña Maclovia Zamora

Chacon’s 2015 mural is a tribute to the legacy and life of Doña Maclovia Zamora, a plant-based healer and herbalist who served her community for 30 years. The mural is located on the side of Albuquerque’s Ruppe Drugstore, the pharmacy where Zamora practiced her healing arts and dedicated her life to helping others. It features Zamora’s portrait surrounded by her four favorite medicinal herbs: dandelion, osha, yerba buena, and yerba mansa.

I highly recommend the video below about the creation of this mural.

A beloved member of her community, Maclovia B. Sanchez de Zamora passed away on December 15, 2017, two years after the completion of this mural in her honor. She was 86 years old.

Resources/References:

• Nani Chacon Official Website
• About Nani Chacon
• Nani Chacon: Doña Maclovia Zamora
• Wikipedia: Nanibah Chacon
• Flickr: “Maclovia Sanchez de Zamora” by Nanibah Chacon
• Vimeo: Tribute to a Traditional Healer: Maclovia Sanchez de Zamora

About My Outfit

While I struggled to choose which mural I wanted to feature because they are all so awe-inspiring, this outfit came together with no struggle at all. I ended up choosing this mural because I was intrigued by all the wisdom and beauty of a healthy life that exudes from Doña Maclovia’s image but I also really like the dominant color palette and found the floral motif to be wonderful sartorial inspiration.

To mimic the main colors in the mural, the blue of Doña Maclovia’s dress and the brownish color of the background, I wore a deep blue sundress with a caramel brown kimono robe. The robe has a floral and paisley print which resembles some of the white colored herbs blooming in the mural. I accessorized with a tan woven belt because this dress is a little too big in the waist but also because the oval belt buckle resembles Doña Maclovia’s gold pendant. I also added a long gold pendant and tassel necklace mimc hers. To honor Doña Maclovia’s life work as an herbal healer, I added more flora elements with my tan floral cowgirl boots, a short gold floral necklace, and cute little flower earrings that I never wear because they get caught in my hair. But I decided to wear my hair in a messy bun like Doña Maclovia so I was able to wear these adorable earrings.

This was yet another successful round of Style Imitating Art for me. I felt like I was able to channel Doña Maclovia’s lovely spirit through this creative challenge and it resulted in an outfit very much to my liking.

I hope you have enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. If you want to play along and be featured with your own art inspired outfit in my gallery post on Wednesday, July 30, 2025, be sure to submit your photos to me at shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. In the meantime, be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of this mural as well as Marsha’s take on it. 

Until then, happy styling, my friends!

Before I leave off, I have some news to share. When we were taking the photographs for this post in the garden at the Jefferson County Historical Society, there was a tiny black kitten sunbathing in the grass.

In an instant, Jeff and I had both caught a bad case of kitten fever. So the next morning (yesterday), we snuck off to Petco on a secret errand. Our intention was adopt one new kitten but once we met all the kittens, we couldn’t leave with just one.

Meet Ozzy, the little black bat-eared kitten. He was born on May 9 and is named in memory of Ozzy Osbourne. I fell in love with him at first sight.

And meet Penny, the gray and white beauty with adorable mittens. I named her Penny because my father often throws pennies at me from heaven. It seemed such a suitable named for this feisty and mischievous girl. She was born on April 12 and she fell in love with me at first sight.

We simply couldn’t take one home without the other! And now we have four. Dave and Frankie are not happy with us but we are being patient and allowing them to take their time getting used to these crazy energized kittens.

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee