Embodied in this project is the city of Palo Alto, its communities, their stories, and its ecology.  ​ 
This Tea Ceremony and community ritual  is the culmination of my art Project "El Palo Alto Medicine", currently on display at the Palo Alto Art Center. 

With the public gathering around the artful preparation, we invoked the healing powers of redwoods while enjoying redwood tea.  United we called for strength, wisdom and resilience to stand up for climate justice.

Embodied in this project is the city of Palo Alto, its communities, their stories, and its ecology. 

Inspired by the story of El Palo Alto (the tall pole, in Spanish), the oldest redwood tree in the area and the one that gives the city of Palo Alto its name, I created herbal remedies using the leaves from  this legendary, ancient and iconic redwood tree and an extraction of the pigments was used to paint the mural in the gallery.

​This installation will culminate in a community ritual, a tea ceremony with the public gathering around the artful preparation, presentation, and enjoyment of the El Palo Alto Redwood Tree tea.

On view at:
Palo Alto Art Center
Jan 21 p May 26, 2022

EVENTS
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Arbor Week Celebration
Saturday March 12, 10am - 4 pm

Join me and Canopy for two tree walks, at 10 am and 11 am,  at the Palo Alto Art Center. 
More info  here

 "Creative Attention" Community Day Celebration
Sunday April 9, 12 - 4pm

I will be performing a El Palo Alto Tea Ceremony from 12 - 12:30 pm
Full schedule of events here

Last year I was approached by Winter Williams Productions to create a labyrinth in their backyard. Using materials found in the neighborhood by the Oakland Hills, like bricks and slabs of different shapes,  we worked over the course of 6 days flattening the yard, arranging the bricks, painting them and filling the gaps with decomposed granite.

Ariadne, in Greek mythology, daughter of Pasiphae and the Cretan king Minos. She fell in love with the Athenian hero Theseus and, with a thread helped him escape the Labyrinth after he slew the Minotaur, a beast half bull and half man that Minos kept in the Labyrinth.

But since labyrinths are unicursal paths and no-one can get lost in them, Ariadne’s thread would seem useless. But if we think metaphorically the story has a different meaning. Ariadne could be offering Theseus the challenge to enter the labyrinth and face his own fears.  The thread is the path or journey through the labyrinth, in fact it’s an actual labyrinth itself.

With these ideas I decided to design a labyrinth in the shape of the thread that follows the path of the Cretan Classical 7 Circuit Labyrinth, also known as Minoan Labyrinth. To learn more about this project watch the video below:

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Art for social and personal transformation
“My intricate lines and geometric patterns summon the contemplative realm where we can embrace new dreams and stories.” — Paz de la Calzada

My work has always called upon the healing power of plants and the elements to facilitate transformations. My art, infused with plant-based healing energy, invokes a liminal space where you can connect your inner source to infinite possibility.

Step into my world.
In my short behind-the-scenes video I show you the magic that inspires all of my art.
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See my behind-the-scenes video below
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Happy New Year!

Do you know that the month of January is a perfect time to check with your dreams and come up with the way to manifest them? I feel the critical moments that we are living, specially with a past full whole year of profound changes, are an incentive to put our dreams into action.

With this in mind,  I have created a body of work that brings together art, which is the language of the unconscious mind, and the healing power of plants. My intention is to create art that offers a transformative experience and that accompanies you in the process of projecting your values ​​and your dreams.
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Fierce Dreamer ARTEMISIA KIT
This powerful kit contains:

- A Painting on vintage Map of The Olympic National Forest. Acrylic and herbal pigments. 21" x 16" 

- “Follow your Dreams” Mugwort Tincture. (artemisia douglasiana and brandy) 1oz.

- A Postcard with Invocation to Artemis 4" x 6"

BUY IT HERE

​January is the perfect month to invoque Artemisia, who has a special way to touch us with her magic helping us to dream high and project our vision for this year. But Artemisia is not only one of the most revered of dreaming herbs in the western materia medica, She is also the Goddess Hunter that fights for justice casting a spell around systems of oppression, specially the ones that affect women.

These paintings are made using pigments and herbal extract from Artemisia and it features her home on Mount Olympus.

This resentment free potion is the ultimate medicine to cast 2020 out and facilitate the transition to the New Year. Inspired by the ancient principles of alchemy and shadow integration work, this sweet elixir connects you with this year’s dramatic energy so you can have a complete experience and be prepared to let it go. By making friends with this dark year you’ll be able to transform the poison into potion, the shadow into the light.

Buy this item here

Ingredients: 20 plants collected from our diverse Bay Area Flora, with no discrimination whatsoever of their origins, including native, invasive, adapted, naturalized, domesticated and wild. (Yerbabuena, yerba santa, eucalyptus, cleavers, grindelia, nettles, oak, thyme, elderberry, sage, california poppy, california sagebrush, lavender, mint, elm bark, redwood sorrel, lemon balm, rose, california bay and rosemary). Brandy and Honey.​

Novena*: Take one dropper a day for 9 days starting the day of The Great Conjunction** (Winter Solstice Day on December 21, 2020) and ending on the last Full Moon of the Year (December 29, 2020).  Read the 2020 spell simultaneously. It can be used in 2021 to alleviate any remaining  PTSD from 2020.