Healing From the Ashes

"Dragon Fire" Black Crockpot and red stoneware vase.

Another artist who lives in Tujunga, Ariyana Gibbon, lost her house in the Angeles Fire in 1994. Some good friends and neighbors of hers lost their homes in the Station Fire early this year. Knowing what they had experienced and fueled with the knowledge that seven of these families had no fire insurance to replace their losses, Ariyana decided to enlist the aid of fellow artists, two of whom actually were victims of the fire, to create art from the remnants of those homes. She determined to create an exhibit, where the art would be offered for sale and the proceeds would go to the owners of what was now shards of pottery and dishware, twisted and melted globs of glass and wire, as well as charred bits of wood and more.

Ariyana mentioned that people in this area responded very well to mosaics and suggested that I might like to do one. I agreed, despite the fact that I haven't created a mosaic since my childhood classroom days, when we cut up little bits of construction paper and glued half of them to our fingers while trying to carefully place them on our backing papers. Right after agreeing to do this and before meeting her and picking out materials, I attended a 4th of July party, where a henna tattoo artist was decorating the guests. I looked through her books and when I saw some dragons, I knew that's what I wanted. I really enjoyed having that little beast on my arm for the several day period it lasted and made my decision to design a dragon mosaic for the Healing from the Ashes Art Exhibition. Thankfully, between YouTube demonstrations and Ariyana's advice, I managed to create this guy, although I still felt I was re-inventing the wheel to some extent and it took quite a bit more time and patience than I'd anticipated. I'm happy with the end result and am optimistic that it will find a new home.

The opening reception will be held on October 3, 2010 from 2pm-5pm and the show will run from October 3-October 21 at 8263 Foothill Blvd., Sunland, CA 91040

Accompanying the exhibition will be a program of related events:
Thurs. Oct. 7th at 7:00Pm Documentary Film- “The Station Fire Tragedy" by award-winning
filmmaker Christopher Toissaint (work in progress),
Sat.Oct.16 1:00-5:00 pm Artist Demonstrations
More events will be posted on http:// www.healingfromtheashes.org ASAP