Jisu Sheen photo
Soren Sierra at Semilla Café in Hartford, where she launched Chismosa's second issue.
Long before her current role as Chismosa in Chief, an 8‑year-old Soren Sierra would entertain herself by making fake interviews on Microsoft Paint. As she grew up, Sierra moved onto Instagram, pairing photos with moody quotes. Last month, the 23-year-old multidisciplinary artist celebrated the second edition of a dream she’s had her whole life: her own zine.
Issue 2 of Chismosa.
Chismosa zine features artists across Connecticut, with artwork ranging from photography to playlists, poetry, interviews, and more. Sierra calls it “a way to showcase my own art as well as what I’m inspired by.”
In other words, “It’s a love letter to my state.”
Sierra is largely self-taught, powered by a desire to lift up the artists around her. “I’m nothing without my inspirations,” Sierra said, describing how too often “we forget to be inspired by who we see, who we’re with.” She gathers zine contributions from her local circle of friends as well as her online Chismosa community.
“I’ve had this image in my head since January,” Sierra said of the cover to her second issue. She did the photoshoot in May, collaborating with New Haven photographer Idalys Dorantes Gómez and commissioning friend Sol Layfield (a.k.a. Solgemz) from Western Massachussetts to make a Virgin Mary necklace.
Sierra made the veil right before the shoot, sewing together the white lace from a table runner. Gómez brought a three-level golden crown she already had, and the two artists photographed model Bianca Santiago at Heaven Skatepark in Hartford.
The cover was for a special issue focused on local Latin American artists, with flags representing the contributors’ different cultures and interviews highlighting the food they love, the fellow Latinx artists they want to uplift, and the traditions they carry. Sierra’s aim was to create an outlet for artists to “talk about us the way that we deserve.”
Sierra likes to “bond over having a vision and seeing it through.” Her friendships often turn into artistic collaborations and vice versa. Contributions to her zine are a mix of solo submissions and concepts that turn into group projects with Sierra’s help.
“I’m more happy than ever with community here in Connecticut,” Sierra said. She remembers being inspired by Zoe Jensen and Mariana Pelaez of local zine Connecticunt, and now they’re friends and collaborators. The Connecticunt crew even offered to help Sierra with printing — a suggestion she didn’t cash in on in the end.
“My big flaw as an artist is asking for help,” Sierra said. The way Chismosa has been unfolding, it seems Sierra will overcome that flaw in no time. When the residential building Sierra was planning to use as a launch party venue stopped holding events, Hartford’s Semilla Café took her in. Connecticunt posted about Chismosa on their social media, which Sierra credited as a huge help in getting the word out. Boston Post Road tattoo shop Vanaheim Tattoo has Sierra’s zine on their coffee table. One of their tattoo artists, who goes by Loop, created the iconic Chismosa logo gracing the cover of the zine’s first issue.
The logo appears on the cover as a back tattoo. Further down, the words “issue one” are also printed, as a practical effect in the photo itself rather than a digital addition. Loop used a tattoo stencil to print the words directly onto Sierra’s back.
As a finishing touch for the completed cover, Sierra tied a colorful string around the zine to act as a bikini string for her photographed back. It’s inspired by a bikini packaging concept from the ‘90s in Brazil. “I love a whole experience in my art,” she said.
“I feel like my back is my medium,” Sierra conluded as she flipped through her zine. She landed on a picture of her back, with letters and rhinestones spelling out the phrase, “It sorta is what it is.”
“This is a piece of vent art,” she said, from “when I was crashing out, making the issue.” She sketched out the image from her mind and had friend Karla Oyola help arrange the letters and take the photo.
So when will the next issue of Chismosa come out? It might not be for a while. “I don’t want it to be a mass-produced thing,” Sierra said, explaining she wants to take the summer to find inspiration and work on her own mini zines and poetry, to “get back into into that love for it.”
She doesn’t want to set up expectations that end up trapping her. Instead, Sierra plans to continue having fun, making connections, and publishing when she feels ready. “How can I disappoint anyone if it’s art that I’m proud of?” she said.
“It’s an honest beginning,” Sierra said and smiled, pointing at an interview with Joshua Sanchez, a.k.a. JadoreJoshy, from her second issue. “Yes, two answers are the same.” She will fix that in future print runs, so now is your chance to get your hands on a rare first-edition with the goof included.
Looking back on all she’s been able to create and facilitate this year, Sierra said she’s still working from “the heart of 12-year-old me, making cringey quotes on Instagram.”
You can keep up with Soren Sierra and Chismosa zine at @chismosazine and @sorenisonline on Instagram, or grab a copy at the Zine for the Hart mixer at Semilla Café on Friday, July 25 from 7 to 9 m. or the New Haven Zine Fair from 12 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 17 at the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op.
Artist profile on Idalys Dorantes Gómez, who shot the issue's cover.