Through watercolor, artist Keni Davis—known as Keni Arts—has been documenting the impact of the Eaton Fire across Altadena. Like thousands of his neighbors, the artist lost his home in the deadly January wildfire, the place where he and his wife raised three daughters. By painting the charred landscape left in the community, he uses art to cope and find beauty amid profound loss.
Despite the wreckage, the artist continues to paint as he did before the fire, revisiting familiar sites around town and capturing scenes reduced to rubble. Yet Altadena pushes forward—Keni Arts and his family are among those determined to rebuild from the ashes.
Beauty For Ashes
These paintings are part of his latest series, Beauty For Ashes, which depicts Altadena after the fire, before the debris is cleared. The title is inspired by the Bible verse Isaiah 61:3: “[God] will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair.”
Speaking with NewsOne, Keni Arts shared a selection of paintings from his Beauty For Ashes (BFA) series, along with the stories behind them, pairing each piece with a painting he created before the Eaton Fire.
My House
“I did that painting from my front yard in about 1985. That was home. That’s the same house I had lived in for a little over 38 years.”
My House BFA (2025)
“On the 10th (of January) I did the painting that you see there, of my house in Altadena. The air kind of cleared up, so I set up my easel and painted the house—so that’s how that scene came about.”
The artist recounted the night of the Eaton Fire as the flames began to spread from east Altadena.
“The fire in Eaton Canyon started on the seventh. I was at home watching it on TV that afternoon. There had been fires in Eaton Canyon before, so I thought, okay, we’ll just watch and see what happens. As the afternoon wore on, the fire…
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