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Artist's Statement: October 24, 2020 we cabin
owners were allowed in to Big Santa Anita for a few
hours to survey our losses and damage. A surreal,
unnerving experience, seeing our beautiful canyon
reduced to ashes, bleak and blackened, with many
active fires still smoldering, not knowing what we
would encounter upon arriving at our destinations.
Passing the unrecognizable shells of cabins I once
knew well, owned by people I know and care about, I
was devastated. And then approaching my place which
was miraculously untouched I saw that my nearby
neighbor, Deb Burgess’ cabin 70 had completely
vanished, except for a few bits of charcoal and
white ashes. I thought about charcoal sketches I did
in art school, maybe I should do a drawing of her
beloved retreat. I picked up a piece and carried it
up the trail, and as I entered the parking lot she
was driving in. I told her what I planned to do and
her heartfelt and emotional reaction suddenly made
me realize that I had been chosen (the only way I
can describe this) to draw every cabin the way it
used to be using actual charcoal from each and every
lost cabin and gift the drawings to the owners. So
began my quest. It took over two months to collect
all the charcoal, and several people helped by
picking up the pieces from a few remote cabins that
I knew I would have trouble reaching. As sad, even
heartbreaking as it has been for me to do these
memorial drawings, it has also been cathartic.
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 Cabin 70 |
 Cabin 19 |
 Cabin 54 |
 Cabin 23b |
 Cabin 23 |
 Cabin 102 |
 Cabin 102b |
 Cabin 77 |
 Cabin 65 |
 Cabin 73 |
 Cabin 66 |
 Cabin 30 |
 Cabin 127 |
 Cabin 76 |
 Cabin 56 |
 Cabin 106 |
 Sturtevant Camp, Cabin 1 |
 Cabin 25 |
 Cabin 30b |
 Cabin 78 |
 Cabin 94 |