“People were so devastated in that area that it was like it was some of the first beauty they’ve seen,” said Grammer, an artist from Los Angeles, but who grew up in Chico.

Looking was forward, Grammer wasn’t even aware that he would make multiple trips up to Paradise to create more than 10 murals in the community; memorials and pieces of hope for a community that didn’t have much to look forward to. A beacon of beauty in the burnout community that everyone was once able to call home.

Grammer grew up near the Paradise area, living in the neighboring, bigger community of Chico. The area was a place where he called home until he moved to Los Angeles for his career as an artist. But his home never left his thoughts and feelings, even when he saw what was happening to his friends and family during the Camp Fire.

It was through social media that he saw family and friends wearing masks, posting about their struggles and what was happening to them during the fires.  After he made the eight-hour drive for the first time, he saw what was left of a community he once knew so well.

“There are sections of people who just didn’t have anything anymore.”

It was the first time Grammer had seen what had happened; what the fire had done to this world he knew. But over time, he would continue to come back to Paradise and to the area and hear the countless stories of what happened to those in the area.

Before his murals in Paradise, Grammer was creating murals around the globe, bringing attention to different, yet difficult topics. His first mural, when he was only 19, was for an orphanage in Mexico. But this wasn’t the end. He used his love of street art to raise awareness about important topics, especially sex trafficking.

But his murals had a different impact; a different appreciation to them before Paradise.

“For a lot of the heavy issues I do artwork for, a lot of people don’t care. Only the people who care about that issues are the ones who care.”

But Paradise was different.

“The art did move people and encouraged people. It gave them beauty.”

That first piece was what really allowed Grammer to gain the attention that launched him into a new realm of stardom. At first, he just shared his work to his Facebook page, just as he had done with so many other pieces that he had created throughout time.

It was only when his friend, the one he created the mural for, shared it to a Facebook page for survivors, that it really gained traction. People saw the art, the beauty of this one single painting.

This sparked a storm on social media. People were sharing the post. People were asking for their own murals to be painted. International media reached out to Grammer, asking for interviews and wondering about the piece he created.

As of now, Grammer has created over 15 murals in Paradise for the community. He has created memorials. He has created pieces for families who lost almost everything. Pieces for families who lost families. Pieces of hope. Pieces of strength.

Grammer said that much of the area, including his hometown of Chico, has always been a creative space for those who continue to make art, but he hopes that his work inspires others to turn to the arts, and maybe find a sense of healing through it.

“I hope this mural project encourages other creators to create and move people,” said Grammer.

Grammer prides himself on being a Christian, but overall, he seems to be proud to give something back to his community through the art form that he loves. Through his art, he’s been able to give back to his old community and to continue.

Because of his work and the attention it received, multiple fundraisers have been set up to raise money for different art programs in the area, including a program to help young people use art to heal from the disaster.

But Grammer never did this for the fame. He did this all to help a community that he still cares about, and to help a healing process in any way he can.

“I’ve done my job as a human.”

The post Murals in Paradise: The Story of Shane Grammer appeared first on Reclamation on the Ridge.

For Camp Fire survivors, the world of art is not lost to them. The area around Paradise and Chico is very creative, with artists living directly in Chico, but with many others living up on the Ridge in the woods.

Musicians, artists, writers, and other creators were all impacted when the Camp Fire came through their towns. Besides worrying about losing homes, pets, belongings, and sometimes, loved ones, a lot of the artists in the area lost thousands of their pieces and their supplies.

“I personally lost all my art work in the fire, years and years of art work, some stored in boxes and some framed on my walls,” said Renee Goularte.

Goularte lived on the Ridge, in a small town just outside of Paradise, called Magalia. After the fire, she only had a few photographs remaining of her work; just shells of what she used to have.

The Camp Fire is a story of loss; a narrative that continues to repeat itself even months after the fire. For a number of creators in the area, the loss has restricted their ability to create.

Besides so many losing their pieces in the fire, they lost their spaces to create, their supplies, and in some cases, their muses.

In the area, a number of groups are trying to help out the artists of the area. Facebook groups have been created to help different artists in the area share their stories about what the lost. On the page, there are calls for supplies, but also calls for excess supplies that are up for donation.

The Paradise Art Center is trying to do what it can to support artists in the area. Donations are accepted in an attempt to help the artists of the area that lost everything. Different fundraisers have been established to help a number of areas of the arts.

In March, Ed Asner came up to Theatre on the Ridge, a production theater in Paradise that survived the fire, to help raise money for the community and the theater itself.

Throughout the communities that were affected by the Camp Fire there’s that continual story of lost, but there are stories of coming together and working to recreate what the fire took from them.

And what better way to do this through art?

The fire was extremely traumatic for so many, including a lot of the young people of the area. This is why Erin Haley started a program so young people could express themselves through drumming.

Haley, who has a private practice in music therapy, received a grant after the fire where she was able use her knowledge about music therapy to a number of young people in the area. With groups from elementary school children to teenagers, they’re able to come together and release a lot of their anger and frustration, but while doing this, create something.

“It’s so nice that it’s highly valued,” said Haley about music and the arts in the area since the fire.

In the long-term recovery process for Paradise and the surrounding areas, there’s a focus on the arts.

Events are planned for the future to revolve directly around the arts. Song writing events, fundraisers to have art be a core part of the healing process for the young people of the community, and just the overall  

Art, while painful to others, can be healing for some. Take for instance, the artists at the 1078 Gallery. At the end of April, the gallery sponsored a showcase called “Remembered: Art Honoring Loss from the Camp Fire.”

The small space could have been overlooked by anyone driving by, but once inside the space, the art for the exhibition was able to tell stories that sometimes words weren’t able to.

When Rebecca Wallace and Rebecca Shelly came up with the idea that would eventually turn into the exhibition, they were looking for a way to help the Camp Fire survivors in the way that they knew: through their art.

They created a Facebook group where those impacted by the fire could share their stories about what they lost in the fire. Over 40 artists from around California and the world agreed to take part and create pieces for not only the gallery, but ultimately the survivors themselves.

Some artists themselves were impacted. Take Jessica Vega. During the Camp Fire, she lost her own home and much of her family had to move in together after the fire.  

“We’ve been through worse,” said Vega. “It really puts perspective everything.”

For the showcase, she created a piece out of wood to honor an item her neighbor had lost in the fire.

Vega also was part of the Butte College class that helped curate the exhibition. In the hours leading up to its opening, her, along with a few of her classmates, were working to make sure that every story and every name card was perfect.

One of the pieces at the gallery was a recreation of a lost portrait from the fire. The drawing showed a young man in a military uniform, smiling as he looked off to the side. While the photo was lost forever, the drawing came from that loss.

One of the most notable stories from the Camp Fire was a story about art. Shane Grammar, an artist who was from Chico, but later moved to Los Angeles, started creating pieces of street art on the ruins of homes and other buildings in Paradise.

The area is extremely creative. Just driving through Chico, there are pieces of work everywhere. Huge murals, sculptures, street art. It all gives off this creative energy, a sense that the entire area is so creative and how important art is.

Now six months after the fire, the art is starting to come back. Bands that were affected from the fire are playing again in Chico. Spaces are being found for those who want to create.

What was lost from the Camp Fire can never really be replaced.

But maybe it could fuel the creative spark to create from it.

The post Art Provides Healing appeared first on Reclamation on the Ridge.

“It feels like it’s normal, but I know for other people around me, their whole lives just changed,” said Sophie Gruszka.

On Nov. 6, 2018, life was supposed to continue like any other day for the college students at Chico State, a public university in the California State University system. But even though the fire didn’t touch the town of Chico, the students still felt the devastation reach them in their college town.            

Gruszka, along with Clare Brady, Sandra Canizal and Malia Esteban were all attending classes at Chico State on Nov. 6.

“The day it started, there was a lot of smoke, and I remember being like, “Oh they’ll put it out soon enough,’” said Gruszka.

As the fire was raging through the ridge above, students were hearing rumors about the fire. Some students were encouraging their classmates to leave, while some just assumed this was just another California wildfire.

“I was receiving two different messages,” said Brady. “From the students, it was a little chaotic.”

At 9 a.m., the first official notification from the university went out. It alerted students to the fire that was being monitored on the ridge, but classes would still continue for the day. Updates continued throughout the day. At around 11:15 a.m., the university was still open. By that time, Paradise had been burning for hours.

Near 3 p.m., classes for the rest of the day were canceled, but the university released the information that, “Campus remains open. Classes are expected to resume tomorrow, Nov. 9,” according to the Chico State updates from the Camp Fire.

While the university was preparing for class the next day, a lot of the students were trying to find a way out of town. Many of the students at Chico State are from different areas in California, including Gruszka, Brady, Canizal and Esteban.

“It was kind of scary because I didn’t have anywhere to go home,” said Gruszka.

Students piled into cars with their roommates, friends or others who lived nearby. Some students had their plane tickets changed, as their Thanksgiving break was only two weeks away.

Canizal is from Southern California and had no clue what she was going to do until Gruszka offered her a ride to her home, which was closer to Chico. She had her flight switched and all the fees were waved so she could get home.

At about 5:40 p.m. on Nov. 9, a day after the fire had started, classes were canceled at Chico State until Nov. 26. By this point, a number of students had already left the area, fleeing to their homes if they were safe.

“When I was home, I was literally checking the progress of the fire every day, like every hour,” said Gruszka.

As students came back to campus after the two weeks off from school, their lives had changed, even as their town of Chico was untouched.

 “When I came back, all I wanted to do in my classes was just like share my story and hear other people’s stories and cope with everybody,” said Brady.

The young women talked about how their lives felt so different after the fire. Coming back to Chico had affected each of them, even though they were lucky to not have to be directly impacted by the fire.

Esteban received a new roommate after the fire; another Chico State who had been living in Paradise. She lost her home in the fire.

 As many were returning to the area, students and residents in the area were encouraged to wear masks because of the air quality. The smoke had been so bad that it even affected those living in the Bay Area.

“I wore the same one for like two weeks,” said Brady.

Even months after the fire, at the university, the fire hasn’t been forgotten. Outside of the main entrance to the library, two square support columns have been wrapped in fencing material. Tied to the fences are flowers, flyers and notes from students affected by the fire and words of encouragement from others. Some strips of paper say, “Butte Strong,” or “California Strong.”

One of the more shocking pieces on the fence is a burnt, brown leather purse. Stories of barely making it out of the fire are told on the cream-colored parchment. A reminder of how close the fire was for so many on campus.

The remembrance outside of the library was called “Remembering the Ridge.” It was part of a three-week installation to remember how the fire affected the campus on the five-month anniversary. Students and staff could contribute to the physical site itself or contribute their stories and memories on the website created for the installation.

The girls, who were all sitting at a coffee shop, talking about classes and their volunteer work, much of which helped the Camp Fire victims, look like any other group of college students around the country. The Camp Fire comes up in conversation just as naturally as any other topic related to school.

“I feel like the community has experienced it, is mentally recovering from it,” said Brady. “Nobody really talks about it.”

But the memories are still there. The impact is still lasting on the campus at Chico State. For these students and many others, the Camp Fire will be part of their college experience, one that’s full of tragedy and worry.               

For more information about Remembering the Ridge and to read some of the online stories, visit rememberingtheridge.org.

The post A College Caught in the Fire: Stories from Chico State appeared first on Reclamation on the Ridge.

But on the opening night of the “Remembered: Art Honoring Loss from the Camp Fire,” people spilled out into the parking lot, and no one could miss that something special was going on that night in the small building.

Walking around the gallery, the stories and the art merged into one. The idea for the exhibition came when Rebecca Shelly and Rebecca Wallace, two local artists and college instructors, wanted to do something to help the Camp Fire survivors.

The two artists set up a Facebook page where locals could tell their stories about what they lost in the fire. From photos, to homes, and even to family members, their stories were gathered so others could make art out of them.

These stories were then given to artists who wanted to create something for this gallery. Many were from the area, but a few artists came from different parts of California, and one from Ann Kristen Walther, an artist from Norway.

For one artist, Jessica Vega, she knew what she wanted to create going into the project. She, along with much of her family, lost their homes in the fire. Living in the canyon, she wanted to create a piece for her neighbor who lost his prized sword in the fire.

“Everybody has their story,” said Vega at the gallery opening.

Overall, the exhibition was used as a means for healing. So many of the artists were affected by the fire, as well those whose stories they told. If the fire didn’t directly affect someone in the room, they had a close friend, a family member or someone in their life who had lost their home.

Another piece done by Cynthia Schildhauer was for one of her friends who lost her home in the fire. The piece was a series of three different works. At the very top was a photo of the first piece she created after the fire. At the bottom is another photo of ruins from the fire. A heart-shaped figure is barely visible in the darkness. In the middle is the current piece as it stands.

The house has now been painted over, the heart hangs over the house and the bird in the painting. Schildhauer drove up to Paradise for the piece of wood in the piece. She just felt like it would have been wrong not to use it.

In the back area of the gallery, the loss was stronger. Pieces about losing pets, losing precious family photos, losing family members. One piece was dedicated to a mother who lost her daughter in the fire.

The exhibition was also part of a class project for a number of students at Butte College. Through it, they learned how to curate a gallery and exhibition. In the hours and days leading up to the opening day on that Friday, the students, including Vega, were making sure everything was perfect.

On the opening night, artists from the community came together, looking around at every piece and reading every story. Tears were shed among some of the survivors. Laughs were shared between old friends. Boxes of tissues were scattered around the gallery, the impact of the work prepared for.

The artists and those who had shared their stories wore name tags to connect with each other so they could find the other in the crowd. People connected over the stories and the art themselves.

At the end of the exhibition, all of the pieces were going to be given to the survivors who shared their stories.

Because while these pieces were tools of healing for the artists, they were also part of the healing process for the community.

The post Remembered: Art Honoring Loss appeared first on Reclamation on the Ridge.