Mariza Zvorak has recipe for artistic success at Amistad Florist

December 19, 2006
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

Joining a list of galleries that number more than the floral shops in Del Rio, Mariza L. Zvorak always intended to do both in one place. Now situated at 307 Veterans Blvd., Zvorak first opened in La Villita Shopping Center in 2002.

Now, Amistad Florist and Garden of Art are nearly indistinguishable manifestations of visual pleasure and serious business. Amistad Florist provides floral arrangement and delivery services to the usual customers looking to celebrate an anniversary, lament a funeral, or seek forgiveness from a lover, spouse or friend.

Zvorak has found a mother lode of drama among flowers from Ecuador, the size, color and rich texture of which punctuate whatever occasion is being commemorated. Fiery red or eggshell white roses and “Stargazer” and “Casablanca” lilies are airborne from South America whenever Zvorak places her orders, and the results nearly always astound first-time buyers.

But, aside from the bread-and-butter business of flowers, Zvorak’s other passion is visual art that lasts years longer than any vase of posies. The Garden of Art portion of her business is a gallery, school, and studio. The gallery displays the works of local artists, often students under the tutelage of artist and exhibitor Sally Donnelly. The classroom is an alcove of the gallery space, toward the rear of the store.

Together, the gallery and teaching area are nearly 1,300 square feet of wall, shelf and tabletop exhibitions, including an artist-of-the-month featured at the HeART of Del Rio’s First Friday Art Walks. The focus in December is on the students, who Zvorak calls “the future artists of Del Rio.”

No one should assume any pejorative about the “student” art. There are thousands of so-called “professional” and “experienced” artists who long to excel as well as many of Donnelly’s students. Bethany Francis is among them, and her paintings are only a sample of work full of eye appeal and promise on display at the Garden of Art Gallery now.

Zvorak is an accomplished artist in an ancient technique at least four thousand years old, called repoussé (reh-poo-SAY). Hammered metal yielding a raised image on the obverse side has been refined to an artform of remarkable beauty on sculpture, Roman armor shields, and, in Zvorak’s instance, within fine frames. Zvorak also highlights her repoussé pieces with tempera paint, mixed with egg yolks and perfume.

She’s not sure what the perfume accomplishes, “But I was always taught, this is how we do it, and it comes from a recipe by monks in the 6th and 7th century, in Greece.”

How and when Zvorak was “taught” about art is equally fuzzy. “I started making little sculptures when I was four years old,” Zvorak said, explaining that she and her parents lived near the Mediterranean Sea in Tangiers, Algeria, Africa. “My early clay was a mixture of vinegar and bread, and, let me tell you, that can dry as hard as a rock,” she chuckled.

Colors for her little figurines came from lipstick filched from her mother’s purse, and from her parents’ watercolor kits. “Both of them were artists, taught by Catholic nuns in Spain,” Zvorak added. Eventually, the toys became an artform, and then a passion that never left.

On display for the Christmas season is Zvorak’s personal collection of Nativity scenes. Each crèche brings back memories of time and places for Zvorak, and each is completely distinctive in size, style and color. “In Spain, when I was growing up, we didn’t have Christmas trees. It was always a family tradition to set the Nativity,” she explained.

The collection has not been shown publicly before this venue at Amistad Florist/Garden of Art. Extended hours of the business are 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., through the Christmas season.