When the devastating wildfires tore through Palisades, California, in early 2025, artist Ruth Askren found herself with a gnawing sense of survivor's guilt. Her childhood home stood untouched, a stark contrast to the 6,000-plus buildings that were reduced to ash around it. Most people would just sigh and shake their heads. Askren, however, picked up a paintbrush.
At 72, Askren decided the best way to mend her own spirit was to help others mend theirs. She joined Homes in Memoriam, an organization where artists volunteer their talents to create free portraits of homes lost to disaster. Because sometimes, a memory needs a frame.
Rebuilding with Bristles
“I felt really compelled to do something,” Askren told the LA Times, because apparently, the universe decided her golden years needed a new kind of creative challenge. “I’m a painter. This is what I can do to help people cope with their loss.”
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Start Your News DetoxHer process is both meticulous and deeply personal. Working from old photographs, Askren doesn't just recreate structures; she resurrects memories. She’ll add the way a specific tree branch cast a shadow on the porch, or the particular glow from an upstairs window, details that only a resident would truly remember. It’s less about architectural accuracy and more about emotional precision.
For the Vaziri family, she painted a sun-drenched yellow house with a charmingly sloping roof. “Painting this special house gave me a sense of how it was like a living thing,” Askren reflected, which, if you think about it, is a pretty profound way to describe a building that once held a family's entire life.
This project isn't just a balm for the families receiving the art; Askren herself finds it profoundly therapeutic. In a world where so much can be lost in a flash, the act of carefully, lovingly bringing a home back to life on canvas offers a quiet, defiant kind of hope. These homes, she notes, will now “live on in the paintings created by loving hands, sharing the joy and the grief.” Which, honestly, is a far more dignified ending than a pile of ashes.
