Driving past the 1078 Gallery, you would maybe think it’s a laundromat or a small resale shop. If you blink while driving down Park Avenue in Chico, you might completely miss it. It’s not housed in a fancy space like the Museum of Northern California Art just a few miles away.
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.