Cristina Ochoa

Category: Planting

  • Garden of Hope

    Exposition name: Garden of Hope
    Type: San Francisco, Nayarit
    Collaboration with: Neil Pyatt
    Date: 2019

    Description: Evolved into multiple living spaces during the LILHA Residency Program in Nayarit, Mexico, in 2019. Together with the local community of San Francisco, we revitalized four separate gardens through a collaborative planting process. Plants were gathered through donations and exchanges, with contributions from participants who responded to open calls to join the collective effort of planting and regeneration.

  • American Goddesses Xtabay

    Exposition name: American Goddesses Xtabay
    Locations: Private Collection
    Type: Paintings
    Materials: Acrylic paint on cotton paper, Color pencil on paper, paintings and drawings, watercolor.
    Dimensions: Multiple
    Date: 2019 – 2020

    Description: The Mayan legend of the Ololiuhqui or Xtabentún flower tells of two sisters: Xtabay, kind, generous, and misunderstood for her open-heartedness, and Utz-Colel, praised for her purity but inwardly cold and envious. When Xtabay died, her body released a sweet fragrance, and from it bloomed a delicate white flower—the sacred Xtabentún, used ritually by the Maya for its psychoactive seeds containing LSA. She became a compassionate goddess, guardian of desperate souls. Jealous, Utz-Colel vowed that a more beautiful flower would grow from her body. Upon her death, a stunning cactus appeared, but with a foul odor—the Tsacam, reflecting her true nature. Furious, she pleaded with the Lords of the Underworld and was allowed to return in Xtabay’s form, but as a demon. Since then, she appears beneath the Ceiba tree, luring intoxicated men into the underworld. The legend contrasts superficial virtue with genuine compassion and honors the spiritual power of love and generosity.