While my residency was delayed for two years due to COVID-19, my 2022 Djerassi summer was a celebratory molt! Early in my residency I chatted with (Ranch Director) Tim DeVoe about my practice of building mud paintings—living ecosystems where the endogenous microbes photosynthesize pigment. Tim said two things: Visit Mel Henderson’s Observation Shelter (a delightfully hard-to-find cave on the grounds) and talk to Hideo Mabuchi (a former resident with chops in material science and ceramics). After chatting with Hideo, I decided to harvest clay from the vole mound land art scattered all over the grounds. Clay is so densely packed that I hypothesize it occludes microbial colonization; perhaps it could create something of a maze for the microbes to navigate. I filled a 14” x 16” x 1” plexiglass vessel with mud, clay, seeds, dead lizards, scat, flowers, and other materials from the grounds; the resulting Observation Maze was installed on the NW wall of the Artist’s Barn. I encourage all who visit Djerassi to please send me a photo of its evolving painterly progression. Just as in my mud paintings, the endlessly changing view from my studio was a reminder that everything is changing and we are always already invited to change with it. I too was a fleeting pigment in the Woodside landscape.