Altadena's 'Collaboratory' grand opening

WHAT HAPPENED?

The opening of the Eaton Fire Collab was a great success. The parking lot was overflowing, and the 36,000 square foot space was packed shoulder to shoulder with tours, a party, and lots of tabling by non-profit organizations. In the future Free Store (for those who apply in advance) sits the mural shown above, which is about 25 feet long. There was a party going in the central meeting area, along with free snacks. When in full swing, this will be the largest fire recovery hub in California. There is an entire section dedicated to mental health, relaxation, and recovery. It includes art therapy, peer-to-peer counseling, and other psychological resources.

• Eaton Fire Collaborative Opens ‘Collaboratory,’ a Home Base for Recovery (Pasadena Now)
• PEF and the Eaton Fire Collaboratory: A Space for Hope and Healing – Pasadena Educational Foundation
• Altadena Coalition: Community Support and Recovery Initiative | The Altadena Coalition
• LAist.com

Grand opening

Impact artist Ekaterina Sky mural

The EFC Collaboratory is having a grand opening on Tuesday, Oct. 7th, at 540 W. Woodbury Ave. in Altadena (near the intersection of Lincoln and Woodbury). This massive 36,000 square foot compound is the home to many non-profits and an art collective. Our collaboration mural with impact artist Ekaterina Sky is now housed here and visible in the west-facing lounge near the rolling doors. The vision for the remainder of the space will be explained on the day to visitors and guests.

• Eaton Fire Collaboratory Grand Opening
• Tuesday, October 7, 2025 | 4:00 PM – 7:00 pm
• 540 W. Woodbury Ave, Altadena, California

Grand opening of EFC Collaboratory, Altadena

In January 2025, California faced one of the most devastating wildfire seasons in history. Thousands of families were displaced, homes were lost, and entire communities were left reeling in the aftermath.

For the past nine months, the StrongHome Network has been on the ground, serving, supporting, and walking alongside families impacted by these fires. Through collaboration with hundreds of dedicated organizations, SHN has worked tirelessly to help survivors rebuild their lives, restore hope, and begin again.

Now, SHN is thrilled to announce the Grand Opening of the Eaton Fire Collaboratory—a new shared space where over 40 organizations are coming together under one roof to continue this vital work.

The Collaboratory is a place of restoration, partnership, and community. Here, fire-affected families can access a wide range of resources including:

• Essential needs and personal recovery support
• Home rebuilding and construction guidance
• Family and marriage strengthening programs
• Mental health and wellness services
• Business and financial recovery resources.

Following the grand opening, the Eaton Fire Collaboratory will remain open weekly during regular business hours to serve anyone in need of these resources.

Whether one seeks personal support, rebuilding assistance, or community connection, this will be a welcoming space for ongoing recovery and growth. If anyone was impacted by the fires or are passionate about supporting community recovery, all are invited to join SHN for this special event.

Come meet the partners, explore the space, connect with local leaders, and discover how we can all move forward—stronger together.

This event is FREE and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. stronghomenetwork.com/efc-collaboratory-october-7th

Volunteer: Sunday, Oct. 5th

Volunteer and get involved.

WHAT HAPPENED? Amigosdelosrios.org -- which is saving the remaining trees in Altadena after the Eaton Fire took more than half of them -- cleaned up the green space around the center in preparation for the open house on Tuesday, Oct. 7th.

California Climate Action Corps
LA Works

• Oct. 5, 2025: Greening at the Altadena Collaboratory
• laworks.com/2025fires
• portal.caclimateactioncorps.org
• 626 Night Market (Asian offerings)

2025 LA Fires Upcoming Recovery Events

2025 LA Fires Recovery Events and Offerings — Los Angeles Region Community Recovery Organization

• 
  larcro.org
• larcro.org/volunteer
• Legal Clinics
• Insurance and Financial Workshops
• Government Updates and Resources
• Small Business Support Rebuilding
• Repairs
• Emotional Support Workshops
• betterangeles.la/wildfire/fire-recovery-grant
• Los Angeles Region Community Recovery Organization; (Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen. B. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Magic Mural Meditation (Ekaterina Sky)

We're filming a video in front of the mural, Sunday, 5:30-8:00 pm. Wear white shirt to participate in the filming of a music video for local artist Honore's song "Haven"

This is the actual Altadena Mural we created, but it's horizontal on site.

Impact Artist Ekaterina Sky

Up the mountain that is Lake Avenue in Pasadena into Altadena (north of Colorado Blvd. and over the 134/210 Freeway junction) is a magical mural. We painted it under the visionary direction of Impact Artist Ekaterina Sky (Instagram).

It has a secret purpose. It is a giant golden disc (kasina) surrounded by shooting beams of red, white, and maroon lines that produce a pulsating, stroboscopic effect. One takes a meditative seat in front of it on a yoga mat or towel, under the shade tree of what remains of Oh Happy Days Vegan Cafe and the city's main post office parking lot.

• DIRECTIONS: Travel north on Lake Ave. just past the Grocery Outlet. Turn left on Mendocino St. Turn left down first driveway after Jack in the Box. The mural is on the right behind the former site of the post office.

Don't "try" to try; just do it. It's as easy as that.

Using the brilliant gold disc as a Buddhist kasina (disc) or Vedic Hindu mandala (or yantra-chakra), the lines producing a sensation of entering the disc, blurring then erasing the line between subject and object. It is a kind of nondual (advaita) experience of "oneness" in the sense of a Beholder blending with the Beheld.

Can't "concentrate" (unify the mind, gather the faculties to stay on one thing)? Use binaural beats with headphones while softly viewing the disc and doing nothing else.

I hear Chicago's "Colour My World" when I start to sit

Does the world suck, Winston?

In the West we say, "Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder." And so it is. Or at least it can be. Surely, when we feel happy, the whole world seems sunny and sweet. When we're afraid, it may seem cold and grey, dingy like the world did to Winston Smith in George Orwell's dystopian Nineteen Eighty-Four. Is the world this way or that?

Who knows! It might be a utopia. We never see it objectively; we are always looking at it subjectively. So removing the difference between the two and becoming ONE with it, even for a moment, is very instructive for how the world and our experience of it has really been working.

HEMI SYNC FLOW STATE THETA 4HZ BINAURAL BEATS

The secret to meditative absorption, what the Buddha called jhana (Sanskrit dhyana), which literally translates as "meditation," is happiness. There is no "way to happiness," some wit once said. Why? It is because happiness is the way! Happiness and singlepointed attention on certain objects leads to piti, a blissful welling up of joy from within. It isn't that the world has changed and given us permission to be happy. It is that our cultivated happiness has all of a sudden bloomed and blossomed, sprouted and shot up. It is a kind of rapture, or better to say an effortless effervescence.

If stared at long enough, with a soft focus not tightness, it moves on its own.

Artist a work play.

Recently someone on Wisdom Quarterly called it a very pleasant "body buzz" (Michael Taft). The whole body tingles and seems to levitate or at least become very light when we take ourselves lightly. It IS possible to feel that floaty feeling when we no longer take things so seriously and instead just let them be. That's what McCarthy said to do in that Beatles' song. "Mother Mary [Magdelene] comes to me, speaking words of wisdom: 'Let it be.'"

• I can't "do" it! No, you can't. But it (jhana) can happen when we set up the circumstances for it to arise by itself, like gardening. No one can garden, that is, no one can make a plant grow. But anyone can set up the circumstances for a seed to sprout and a plant to come into being. Bhavana, often translated as "meditation," means "cultivation" and literally "bringing into being." Leigh Brasington tells Dan Harris it's deceptively simple. Stop "doing." Just attend to the object.
• Samadhi is a super-conscious, coherent unification of mind accompanied by profound attention and stillness.

What is the Prayer for the Earth?

However things are, that's okay. Let 'em be. They have to be just as they are because we are allowing not opposing, accepting not fighting, seeing clearly rather than distorting or trying to make them some other way. The Buddha's Path to Freedom, the path to mental purification, starts with this level of absorption that is employed in "clear-seeing" (vipassana). There isn't one or the other; there's both. There is no pyramid peak without a solid foundation.

Oh, I see it now, at my third eye.

Absorption (blissful sustained attention) is that base. The peak is insight, clearly seeing. Vayānupassanā means "contemplation of vanishing" and is one of the 18 chief kinds of insight (vipassāna). So whatever we can do to still the mind and turn it into a laser beam of attention rather than the scattered, weak, diffused, dingy, and easily distracted fluorescence of our dull glow is a good thing to be doing -- Ashtanga (Eight Limbs of Yoga) and the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path.

(Why do they call it "noble"? The word is Aryan, and it literally means "Enlightening," so we should call it the Ennobling Eightfold Path, the practice of which brings us to bodhi and nirvana, awakening and the ultimate truth).

Altered States (trailer)

(Sierra Fotuhi) Who would ever make a song about little ol' Altadena?

We are going to return soon to film a music video with the mural. Then we are going to move it. It's portable. So this free meditation is a limited-time offer. At the next stop it will have its QR code to listen to the prayers embedded behind the gold. Do you know what alta means in Spanish? "High." Not because it's above Pasadena, but because it's a place for a natural altered state.

• (Sleeping on Trees) We create our reality without knowing it
• Dhr. Seven and Ekaterina Sky, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly; Sri Yantra (Pin de Jen Browne |  Arte de la geometría sagrada, Arte fractal)

HELP: Ekaterina Sky's Altadena Mural

Contact (ekaterina-sky.com) || Contact | (ekaterina-sky.art)

Help wanted: We need your participation to create a better world, save the planet, and heal!

Altadena Mural Project is planned for Thursday, July 24, 5:00 pm through Saturday, July 26, 9:00 pm, on Lake Ave. in Altadena, LA County. RSVP to see full location details.

• Ekaterina Sky - Impact Artist - Muralist (@ekaterina.sky.art)
• Ekaterina Sky | Facebook
• VIDEO: Ekaterina Sky (IG)

Full Project Overview

🌍 FULL PROJECT OVERVIEW

I paint by inspiration, downloading visions.

YOU are invited: Be part of the Prayer for the Earth Mural Project in Altadena. This is a community art offering for healing, hope, and reconnection.

Through the invitation of John Hopkins and Sev Dhar of Oh Happy Day Vegan Café and Grocery in Altadena, we welcome you to join the creation of Prayer for the Earth — a mural that honors grief, inspires renewal, and reminds us of our deep connection to nature and one another.

This project is a space for community healing, artistic expression, and collective visioning.

• JOIN US: partiful.com/e/MS6y8u2DAFrgzoX2v0Bz

✨ How You Can Participate

(Final schedule to be confirmed — all events will take place during the weekend of July 25–27)

Ekaterina Sky, a contemplative and inspired artist | Les Belles et les bêtes

Prayer for the Earth Mural Weekend: July 24–27, 2025

Final schedule to be confirmed

FULL PROJECT OVERVIEW

🔨 Wall Building and Assembly - Thursday, July 24th (4:00-9:00 pm): Help construct the mural wall (building and assembly of portable wall) — the physical and symbolic foundation of this prayer for the planet.

🎨 Background Painting Days - Friday, July 25th (3:00 pm base painting begins: Join in painting the mural’s first layers. No experience needed — just bring your heart and hands.

🕊 Intention and Prayer Writing - Saturday, July 26th (all day, taping and painting the background): Gather with us to write personal and collective prayers for the Earth and Altadena — adding soul to the mural’s core.

🌿 Final Reveal and Community Celebration - Sunday, July 27 (3:00 pm intentions, prayer writing; 5:00-9:00 pm, sealing prayers and community celebration): Join us for a closing ceremony with sound healing, community talks, spoken word poetry, and music as we unveil the finished mural together.

Next Zoom meeting: Wednesday, July 23

• Final logistical Zoom meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/4827388921?pwd=VFNETGtuejlzMDZUQXU4VWVsZHArZz09
• Meeting ID: 482 738 8921
• Passcode: 0hk6Wc
• When: Changed to Wednesday July 23, 2025, 5:00 pm–5:30 pm (Pacific Time - Los Angeles)
• Previous Zoom: Altadena Fire Mural coordination

🌍 Supported by:

• LA Designers @Climatedesignersla
• Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal
• Dharma Buddhist Meditation (Meetup)
• Los Angeles Climate Week @laclimateweek
• Collidescope Foundation @Collidescopefoundation
• Plant Based Treaty @plantbasedtreatyla @plantbasedtreaty
• Soul Force Project @soulforceproject (live music).

Join me now on Partiful.com

We welcome more partners, volunteers, and local community members to help bring this vision to life. If YOU care about Altadena post Eaton Fire, the Earth, or the power of collective healing — this is your invitation. Whether you build, paint, pray, or simply witness, your presence will leave a mark.

With care and gratitude,

Ekaterina Sky (ekaterina-sky.com)

Visual Artist and Creator of Prayer for the Earth

• RSVP: JOIN: partiful.com/e/MS6y8u2DAFrgzoX2v0Bz

Meetup RSVP (free):

• (Disclosure Project) HELP WANTED to create healing mural after Altadena fire with Ekaterina Sky, Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 5:00 PM | Meetup
• (Nature Center) HELP WANTED to create healing mural after Altadena fire with Ekaterina Sky, Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 5:00 PM | Meetup
• (PasaDharma) HELP WANTED to create healing mural after Altadena fire with Ekaterina Sky, Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 5:00 PM | Meetup

• Help wanted creating Ekaterina Sky's mural
• FULL: Ekaterina Sky's Altadena Mural 2025
• Art through healing: It's Magic, This World (Pasadena Library)
• Art — Altadena Library District (Art-Display-Policy PDF)
• JOIN: partiful.com/e/MS6y8u2DAFrgzoX2v0Bz
• Ekaterina Sky, Altadena Mural 2025 (ekaterina-sky.com), Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

It's Magic, This World (Pasadena Library)

EXHIBIT: It's Magic, This World.

The Eaton Fire hit three foothill cities

Art, Nature, and Sustainability by Katie Savoy is an installation that continues through Sunday, August 31, 2025, at the Hastings Branch Library.

Art, Nature, and Sustainability is inspired by Southern California's landscapes. Katie Savoy finds magic painting Nature's hidden details, from flowers to mountain views. The art, including abstract explorations of texture and fluidity, is a constant journey of growth and therapy.

She's committed to sustainability, sourcing all materials secondhand and repurposing every piece. Her hope is to share this peace and calm with Los Angeles. More info

• CALENDAR: Pasadena Public Library
• EXHIBIT: It's Magic, This World. Art, Nature, and Sustainability by Katie Savoy, through Sunday, August 31, 2025 - Pasadena Public Library

Stronger Together: A Collaborative Puzzle Mural

Ongoing through Saturday, July 26, 2025: A colorful abstract with pencils and paintbrushes and the word ART. Each of us is a “piece” of what makes the library special! Help create a puzzle mural by decorating your own puzzle piece during this year’s Summer Reading.

Individual pieces will become part of a larger mural that will be unveiled during our End of Summer Bash on Saturday, August 2nd at Jefferson Branch Library. Designs can be about anything related to the library – a favorite book or favorite book character, or something that makes one think of the Pasadena community.]

How to Join: Pick up a puzzle piece at any Pasadena Public Library location starting Saturday, June 14th. Return decorated puzzle piece by Saturday, July 26th to be added to the mural.

Questions? Ask Marie Plug at mplug@cityofpasadena.net. We can’t wait to see what contributors create. Let’s make something awesome together!

• Stronger Together: A Collaborative Puzzle Mural, Ongoing through Saturday, July 26, 2025 - Pasadena Public Library

Library Location Allendale Branch Library, Hastings Branch Library, Hill Avenue Branch Library, Jefferson Branch Library, La Pintoresca Branch Library, Lamanda Park Branch Library, Linda Vista Branch Library, San Rafael Branch Library, Santa Catalina Branch Library, Villa Parke Community Center Branch Library Audience Adults, Adults 50+, Children, Emerging Adults (18-24), Family (0-12), Infants and/or Toddlers, Preschool, Tweens Event Type Arts & Culture, Celebrations, Community & Civic Affairs, Exhibits, Summer Reading.

Altadena Fire Mural coordination (Zoom)

WHAT HAPPENED?

This project is multisensory, involving meditation, live music, environmental talks, intention setting, a virtual reality component, QR code to access, an essentially channeled "Prayer for the Earth," assistant artists. It is so much bigger and more visionary than we can easily express. The timeframe for the portable mural/installation's is the last two weeks of July, possibly debuting it with other activities on Sunday, July 27 with free vegan food for all from Samantha Lau and Plant-Based Treaty. Wisdom Quarterly will have to follow up with a one-on-one interview with Ekaterina.

Altadena (Eaton Fire) Mural ("Prayer for the Earth") Zoom Meeting

Altadena Mural 2025

Zoom with artist Ekaterina Sky. All interested participants and boosters are invited to attend online. What's the story? Help wanted creating Ekaterina Sky's mural. We need volunteer artists to bring this vision to life to heal Los Angeles and the world. There's a project manager, funding is all in place, and all we need now are volunteers and supporters on the construction days, which we plan to launch in the middle of July.

• What? Planning and coordination Zoom call
• When? Wed., July 2, 2025, 5:00–6:00 pm (PDT)
• Where? us06web.zoom.us/j/4827388921?pwd=VFNETGtuejlzMDZUQXU4VWVsZHArZz09
• PLEASE RSVP on Meetup: Art for healing Earth: Altadena Fire (Zoom planning meeting), Wed, Jul 2, 2025, 5:00 PM | Meetup

We are lovers of Alex Grey's art

We are partnering with Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots, The Plant Based Treaty | Eat Plants, Plant Trees; PasadenaWeekly.com; Oh Happy Days Vegan Cafe; and others.

• RSVP: Message Ekaterina Sky (Meetup) or Seven to participate:
• (Disclosure Project) Attention artists, HELP WANTED creating mural in Altadena with Ekaterina Sky, Fri, Jul 18, 2025, 11:11 AM | Meetup
• (PasaDharma) Attention artists, HELP WANTED creating mural in Altadena with Ekaterina Sky, Fri, Jul 18, 2025, 11:11 AM | Meetup
• (Nature Center) Attention artists, HELP WANTED creating mural in Altadena with Ekaterina Sky, Fri, Jul 18, 2025, 11:11 AM | Meetup

Help wanted creating Ekaterina Sky's mural

Fellow Los Angeles Fire victims, navigating through Altadena and seeing murals on some of the remaining walls is encouraging. From the ashes of our communities, people are offering art as visual support.

Wisdom Quarterly is inviting artist Ekaterina Sky, who once had a studio in Lincoln Heights, to form a group (art collective) to adorn another wall.

She envisions people affected by the fire coming together to set intentions for Los Angeles and the planet and create a mural.

This is to express loss and instill a sense of wonder and hope, bringing community together to envision a new world.

• DETAILS: Prayer for the Earth: A Mural for Healing, Unity, and Environmental Renewal, Altadena, Los Angeles (canva.com)

The Plant Based Treaty | Eat Plants, Plant Trees

.

If interested in participating (or know of an available wall), please contact Ekaterina and us at:

• Email: artist@ekaterina-sky.com
• Instagram: ekaterina.sky.art
• Website: ekaterina-sky.com

Altadena Mural Zoom Logistics Meeting

UK-based street artist creates animated GIFs using street graffiti (mentalfloss.com)

• When: Wednesday, July 2, 2025, 5:00–6:00 pm (PDT)
• Where: us06web.zoom.us/j/4827388921?pwd=VFNETGtuejlzMDZUQXU4VWVsZHArZz09

• Painting may begin on July 18, 2025, depending on this Zoom.

For this interactive art project and installation, we are partnering with Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots, The Plant Based Treaty | Eat Plants, Plant Trees; PasadenaWeekly.com; Oh Happy Days Vegan Cafe; and others.

• RSVP and message Ekaterina and Seven to participate:
• (Disclosure Project) Attention artists, HELP WANTED creating mural in Altadena with Ekaterina Sky, Fri, Jul 18, 2025, 11:11 AM | Meetup
• (PasaDharma) Attention artists, HELP WANTED creating mural in Altadena with Ekaterina Sky, Fri, Jul 18, 2025, 11:11 AM | Meetup
• (Nature Center) Attention artists, HELP WANTED creating mural in Altadena with Ekaterina Sky, Fri, Jul 18, 2025, 11:11 AM | Meetup

Amazing art of Alex Grey; Ekaterina Sky (ekaterina-sky.com), canva.com, Voyage LA Magazine (photos, 10/21/24), text by JP, Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Meetup), Wisdom Quarterly