How it happens6:00Artists manufacture watercolors of people from people who have been lost at the fires in LA
Jordan Heber cannot give her homes back to humans, so she does what she can do next.
The woman from Los Angeles paints watercolor pictures of her houses for people, which were destroyed in the latest fires. And it is not alone.
“There is something immortalized that they have lost,” said Heber How it happens Host Nil Kӧksal. “You can’t give it back to them. But in a way you almost try it. “
According to Cal Fire, the fires, which raged over Los Angeles last month, killed more than two dozen people and destroyed more than 16,000 buildings.
“It brought a bright spot”
As lifter first posted her idea on Tikkok, She thought she would get inquiries from a handful of people from her own social environment.
“And then it started. It went viral and I was stunned, ”she said.
Heber, who works full -time as a brand strategist, says that she was flooded with inquiries, some of people who lost their own home, others who wanted to have watercolors made for their friends and family members who had lost their own.
She said on Wednesday that she had completed three watercolors so far and was working on about 25 more, prioritizing inquiries from people who are directly affected by the fires.
But the first thing she did was not a house at all.
“They signed up and said they know, I am a teacher here and we have lost school, and it is simply devastating that these children have no place where they can go to school. It was just so touching to hear that and I wanted it. “Help,” she said.
The teacher, she says, was extremely grateful for the painting.
“She said that she was basically moved to tears and was so happy that it brought a bright spot.”
Every picture tells a story
Heber says she was inspired to act Through an Instagram contribution of another La artist The offer to draw for free sketches of people’s houses.
Like Heber, Asher Bingham also says that she only expected her contribution to friends and friends of friends.
“I thought that if I did 10 or 20 houses, that would be a great gift,” Bingham told CBC.
Two weeks later, she received more than 1,000 inquiries, and the trend is rising.
“It is a mixture of emotions. It’s happy. It’s sad. It is heartbreaking. It’s beautiful, ”she said. “You want to share these memories, and so small folding texts and sentences come to these pictures … that explain the incident about the loss of your home.”
One person, she says, told her how her father fled his home so quickly, the only thing he did Get out with the shoes on his feet.
Another wrote about the delivery in the hospital while her house burned down to the foundations.
“Really, really heartbreaking stories,” said Bingham.
But her most intimate sketch, she says, was the first to draw for a friend who was just married in Las Vegas when the fires broke out.
Bingham managed to save the woman’s cats the day before the flames destroyed the house.
“The next morning I woke up with the SMS. You know, she sent a picture of devastation and there was nothing left, ”said Bingham.
“And I didn’t know what to say … you lost your first house on the day of your wedding. There are no words for that. And so I thought I could draw your house. “
The draftsman puts together a team
When inquiries piled up, Bingham quickly realized that she would need help if she wanted to do everyone. Therefore, she called on social media.
She now has people who help her in her area and organize incoming inquiries. She divides the work with 17 other artists, all of whom make their time and work available on a voluntary basis. A local printing company prints you free of charge. Another person donated the shipping costs.
“The people who did their best to help us. It’s just exceptional, ”she said.
She also saw others who did similar things, such as an artist who drew portraits of pets who died in the fire, or someone who had offered to reproduce destroyed quilts.
“In LA we don’t hear happy messages. We always hear from politics and the shouting that things are broken and stolen and, you know how terrible people in these quarters are in these quarters, ”said Bingham.
“There are really good people here who develop, which is very nice.”
Heber says she can close her eyes and imagine a future in which someone moves into your house and hangs up one of her watercolors from her old one.
“Nowadays we are obsessed with immediate satisfaction. And that is the opposite for me. It is delayed or persistent or continuous, like a feeling of warmth, every time you come by, ”she said.
“And the fact that one day I can bring this into the new home of someone is something very special. And I am very grateful to have the opportunity to do so. “
