These artists are making free paintings and sketches of people’s homes lost in the L.A. fires

Jordan Heber can’t give people their homes back, so she’s doing the next best thing that she can. 

The Los Angeles woman is painting watercolour images for people — free of charge — of their homes that were destroyed in the recent fires. And she’s not alone. 

“It’s immortalizing something that they lost,” Heber told As It Happens host Nil KÓ§ksal. “You can’t give it back to them. But it’s almost, in a way, trying to.”

The fires that have ripped across L.A. over the last month have killed more than two dozen people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures, according to Cal Fire.

‘It brought a glimmer of light’

When Heber first posted about her idea on TikTok , she thought she would get requests from a handful of people in her own social circle.

“And then it just took off. It went viral, and I was stunned,” she said. 

Heber, who works full-time as a brand strategist, says she’s been inundated with requests, some from people who lost their own homes, others looking to get watercolours made for their friends and family members who lost theirs. 

She said Wednesday she’s completed three watercolours so far, and is working on about 25 more, prioritizing requests from people who were directly impacted by the fires. 

But the first one she did wasn’t a house at all.

“They reached out and said, you know, I’m a teacher here and we lost the school, and it’s just devastating that these kids don’t have anywhere to go to school. It was just so touching to hear and I wanted to help,” she said.

The teacher, she says, was immensely grateful for the painting.

“She said that she was led to tears, basically, and was so happy and it brought a glimmer of light.”

Each picture tells a story

Heber he says she was inspired to action by an Instagram post from another L.A. artist who offered to draw sketches of people’s homes for free.

Like Heber, Asher Bingham says she only expected her post to reach friends and friends of friends.

“I was like, if I do 10, if I do 20 houses, that would be such a gift,” Bingham told CBC.

Two weeks later, she’s received more than 1,000 requests and counting.

“It’s a mixed bag of emotions. It’s happy. It’s sad. It’s heartbreaking. It’s beautiful,” she said. “They want to share these memories, and so, attached to these pictures, come little blurbs and sentences … that explain the instance around the loss of their home.”

One person, she says, told her about how her father fled his home so quickly, the only thing he made it out with were the shoes on his feet.

Another wrote about giving birth in hospital while her home burned to the ground.

“Really, really heart wrenching stories,” Bingham said. 

But her most intimate sketch, she says, was the first one, which she drew for friend who was getting married in Las Vegas when the fires broke out. 

Bingham managed to save the woman’s cats the day before the flames engulfed the house. 

“I woke up the next morning to the text. You know, she sent a picture of the devastation, and there was nothing left,” Bingham said. 

“And I didn’t know what to say… You lost your first house the day you got married. There’s no words for that. And so I was like, I can draw her house.”

Sketch artist assembles a team

As the requests piled up, Bingham quickly realized that if she wanted to do them all, she’d need help. So she put out a call on social media.

She now has people helping her field and organize requests as they come in. She’s divvying up the work with 17 other artists, all of whom are volunteering their time and labour. A local print shop is printing them, free of charge. Another person has donated the shipping costs.

“The people that have come out of the woodwork to help us. It’s just extraordinary,” she said.

She’s also seen others doing similar things, like an artist drawing portraits of pets who died in the blaze, or someone who has offered to recreate quilts that were destroyed.

“In L.A. we don’t hear happy messages all the time. We always hear about the politics and the crying and things are being broken and stolen and, you know, how awful people are in these neighbourhoods, in those neighbourhoods,” Bingham said.

“There are really good humans here and they’re stepping up, which is very sweet.”

Heber, says she can close her eyes and picture a future where someone moves into their home and hangs up one of her watercolours of their old one. 

“We’re obsessed with instant gratification these days. And that, to me, is the opposite. It’s delayed or prolonged or ongoing, like a sense of warmth every time you pass it,” she said.

“And the fact that I’m able to bring that to somebody’s new home one day is very special. And I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to do it.”