A Salinas artist crew transforms food into art.

The Urban Arts Collaborative is a group of Salinas artists who wield art as a tool of activism for human rights. And they are super active.

They’ve represented all over the Monterey County – especially in Salinas – and done happenings at cultural events that speak to their values. Like the Life is for Everyone groundbreaking, the Youth Organizing for Food Justice and Community Health, a California Rural Legal Assistance screening of El Canto de Colibri about LGBT youth in Mexico.

They also use food as an artistic medium, as themes and as symbols.

At one event, they made an illustrated poster that presented a simple edict: “Fast food kills… Living food heals.” At a hip-hop festival at the Cesar Chavez Library last year, they displayed a large, edible food mandala. They’ve taught a culinary class at Rancho Cielo. At a film screening at CSU Monterey Bay, they showed up wearing talismans of water infused with herbs they had grown.

“We all wear talismans, necklaces, medicine bags and bead mandalas, because we want to be in unity with our indigenous culture and show our connection,” says UAC co-founder Juan Carlos Gonzalez. “Inside [them] we carry rosemary, mint and crystals like rose quartz, for protection.”

This weekend they’ll be at the local contingent of the nationwide Make a Difference Day, at Closter Park in Salinas, where they’ll be painting trash cans, cleaning up and showing food-related art. (Another artist collective, Tunas del Nopal, will do the same at Central and El Dorado parks.) All are welcome to volunteer, and will be given T-shirts and lunch – a health-conscious lunch.

Make a Difference Day is 9am-1pm Saturday, Oct. 22, at Central, Closter and El Dorado parks in Salinas. Free. 758-7166.