Before the Los Angeles fires, I had been consistently participating in a durational practice through a mural I created back in 2023. I created a gratitude and joy-based durational practice in hopes of cultivating more joy and gratitude for the little things in my life. The practice was based on journaling physical words onto an artwork, and it truly helped me cultivate more gratitude in my life.
After the fires, I lost not only the mural but also my house and my community. I felt extremely disconnected from my practice after the fires. Although I still experienced joy, I couldn’t bring myself to work in the same way on a durational piece. I felt uprooted, like I was still floating around despite having a roof over my head.
I discovered that I couldn’t approach my durational practice in the same way again. So, I turned to the root of my struggle: my disconnect from the places I interacted with. I created a new piece where I would start to rebuild my own community by painting each of the buildings to which I felt a true connection. Each time I feel truly connected to a place, I will add a building to my piece, creating my very own new community.
