"The way nature is rebounding is incredible. I love being in Altadena, I wanna be here in ground zero," Cielo said.
Most of the ranch was destroyed in the fire, but there are now signs of hope and growth here. And that's exactly what Alma is hoping to capture in a new mosaic, an idea that came to be after a friend reached out with an offer.
"He said, I've got all these shards, all these ceramics, all these broken plates and tiles, can you use them for one of your mosaics" she said.
It became clear when she found several of her own pieces in the rubble, still intact, including one with a fitting proverb saying "it takes a thousand voices to tell a single story.
"We can take these broken pieces of our lives, come together, make something new, she said.
In the next year and a half, Alma will create the mosaic with support from the Artists At Work program, while also holding community art workshops.
"My hope is that I can have a thousand Altadena residents over the next several years come rediscover our resilience, rediscover our joy, our creativity and our healing through the making of these tiles," Cielo said.
She hopes the blending of the broken burnt out pieces will help them transcend what they've lived through.
"With respect to the earth that was stand on, and the resiliency of the Earth, we will hopefully rebuild in harmony and with hope."