The Zuni Youth Enrichment Project’s 4th Annual Trail Stickers Scavenger Hunt is now under way. On each of nine marked community trails, hikers, walkers and runners will find a box containing limited-edition stickers that showcases custom artwork inspired by that particular trail.
ZYEP started the trail stickers project in 2021 as a way to get families outside and doing something active together. Office Coordinator Shelley Edaakie created artwork for the first generation of stickers in 2021, Arts Coordinator Elroy Natachu Jr. created the sticker artwork in 2022, and Zuni artist Alexis Hustito took on the project in 2023.
This year, the trail stickers’ artwork was created by 20-year-old Zuni artist Victoria Martza. Victoria was born and raised in Zuni, and she says she comes from a family of artists.
“My dad, mom and grandma all make jewelry,” she says, “and my uncle and cousin are fetish carvers.”
Victoria says she loved to draw as a child, and she spent countless happy hours creating freehand drawings in her sketchbooks. She further developed her drawing skills in middle- and high-school art classes.
A couple of years ago, Victoria learned about ZYEP’s Emerging Artist Apprenticeship program, and she decided to apply for the embroidery cohort. It proved to be a good fit for her.
“The apprenticeship was really fun,” she remembers. “I know how to crochet — I taught myself — and I wanted to learn another craft. We had a gathering at ZYEP where we could sell what we made, and that was a good experience.”
This spring, one of Victoria’s family members showed her a ZYEP flyer calling for artists to apply for the 2024 trail stickers project. She decided to go for it.
“I thought, why not?” she says. “I sent in three pictures of my work, and I was very surprised to be chosen! Surprised and happy.”
Each of the nine community trails is named for a different animal, so Victoria started practicing her animal designs right away, first sketching freehand and then producing digital drafts. For the backgrounds, she took reference photos and used them to create freehand sketches.
“The bear is my favorite,” she says with a smile.
Victoria has been a full-time working artist since she graduated from Rehoboth Christian School in 2022. She says she originally intended to take a gap year, but that gap has been extended as her work life becomes busier.
At the moment, she is supplying original stickers to The Breaking Bad Store ABQ in Albuquerque, and she is selling her crochet “star bags” at the Ancestral Rich Treasures of Zuni (ARTZ) Cooperative’s gallery in Zuni. She also regularly participates in the ArtsCrawl event in downtown Gallup, New Mexico.
“When I think about being a full-time artist versus going back to school, it’s so hard to decide,” Victoria muses, noting that she is interested in pursuing either graphic design or criminology at the college level.
For now, however, she is content to pursue her art career and her hobbies, which include reading, listening to music, and playing video games. And, she continues to enjoy her current role with the Trail Stickers Scavenger Hunt.
“It has been very exciting, to be part of this,” she reflects. “It’s cool that people will have a thing that I made.
“It’s great that we can enjoy our beautiful land this way, and share it with others,” she says of the trail stickers project. “I want people to know that, here in Zuni, we are rich in our land and our culture.”
