Artist in California helps heal community affected by wildfires
ALTADENA, Calif. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - An artist in the Altadena area is helping his community after it was affected by the wildfires last month.
His name is Keni Arts, and he loves to paint what he knows best.
"Altadena, the best little city in the world," Arts expressed.
It's the place he and his family have called home for nearly 40 years now.
"Altadena has kind of a unique place among black folks. Altadena was one of the first places that were just not doing redlining back in the day," Arts shared.
With a little water and a little color, Arts adds a little life to the otherwise mundane, like his paintings of the Altadena Post Office, or the local hardware store.
"Altadena Hardware, some of the greatest people in the world," Arts declared.
But now, Arts is painting a row of small shops along Lake Avenue, except the shops are no longer there.
"Yeah. It's been a tough situation, you know, especially for so many people who have lived here for so long...This is the sort of place where you could walk down the street and run into two or three neighbors that I knew. And so, that's not happening right now," Arts remarked.
Since the Eaton Fire destroyed so much of Altadena, Arts has been documenting the destruction, posting his new works next to his originals, for a heartbreaking before and after.
"You know, people deal with tragedy and in different ways, and this is one of the ways I deal with mine," Arts stated.
For Arts, life is imitating his art as his home was also lost in the fire.
"Lost my home and all of my artwork except a few small paintings...I lost my studio at my home. But [being outside] is my studio," Arts spoke.
And so, Arts dips his brush into the palette, painting the unpalatable state of his beloved Altadena.
"They call it the silver lining in the clouds or something. And that's what we try to do. We look for that," Arts said.
He knows it may never look like it used to, but that it won't always look like this.
"I think that light [in the painting], there just sort of a symbol...There's some light from above," Arts expressed.
