When the art is burning

I am finding it particularly hard to write this week as the world is literally going up in flames. Wild fires in Los Angeles have decimated entire neighborhoods. So many people have lost their homes and the places they called home. I am heartbroken and terrified.

But the purpose of this newsletter from day one has been to share in community while the world is burning (metaphorically and now sadly literally). Art is what enables me to put one foot in front of the other. My love for art, my belief in it is what sustains me. I often produce my better work in times of total crisis. The morning after my father died, I went to college and sat for an exam. It was insane but it taught me to go deep inside me and focus, no matter what. When Trump was elected again in November, I shut myself in the studio, started this newsletter as a way to not remain in loneliness and made my favorite painting this year. When L.A. started burning, I began a painting I had had in mind for years. The terror forces me to focus, the grief forces me to make work that I hope is valuable because sitting down to write or paint is all I have got to offer. And then there is community, all of us talking to one another, that is another grounding safe haven. Reaching out, organizing, providing needed information, needed resources, gathering in proximity and despite the distance is necessary. Here below are some informations on how to help, on how to support mothers and children in need in LA, on how to support artists who have lost their homes and studios and all the works they had made over years. So we can help rebuild.

Yesterday I went to the Met to look at paintings that had survived fires and wars. I am not religious but looking at these paintings that had endured devastation gave me purpose. I am not religious but seeing this painting of the Virgin Mary visited by the angel Gabriel gave me hope because that conversation between them is one about the future, a future that is full of fear and wonder, a future that will be, no matter what.

Seeing a wooden fragment of the head of Christ that had survived the bombing of a Church in Sienna in 1944 gave me a sense of continuity. We as humans, and the artworks we create, endure.

Here is the bejeweled revetment of an icon. I like to see it as a presence in absence. In the void I see a mother’s love, a reminder of beliefs held by millions for centuries, a gesture of care, a marked endurance despite tragedies. May we hold on to each other, may we keep finding the ability to make art and look at art others have made for centuries to find solace and companionship, may we know how to rebuild one day at a time.

Resources:

Baby2Baby is a nonprofit that provides children living in poverty across the country with diapers, clothing and all the basic necessities that every child deserves.

https://donate.baby2baby.org/give/648067/#!/donation/checkout

Help rebuild the lives of LA Artists and Art Workers (go fund me page):

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-rebuild-the-lives-of-las-artists-and-art-workers

For people in LA, here is a google sheet made by Mutual Aid LA network (MALAN) with infos on shelters, free PPE, food, animal rescue and more.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KMk34XY5dsvVJjAoD2mQUVHYU_Ib6COz6jcGH5uJWDY/edit?gid=0#gid=0

I’ll add more artist resources as they are vetted today.