Beauty Among The Ashes: An Artist’s Quest to Bring Hope to a Town That Lost Everything

On November the 8th, 2018, the sleepy artisan town of Paradise in Northern California was hit

by the most devastating fire in California history, destroying over 150,000 acres, nearly 19,000

structures, and claiming the lives of 85 people. It became known as the Paradise Camp Fire, and

it decimated the entire community, leaving very little left but ashes and ruin. The entire world

noticed.

Several months later, an artist named Shane Grammer, who once lived in the area, knew

and remembered his friends and family in the region, and he made a pilgrimage back to his

roots, with one purpose: To honor a friend of his, who lost everything. Shane painted a mural

on the only thing that was left of his friend’s house - a white chimney, barely standing in the

middle of the ruins of their dreams. The mural was called Beauty Among the Ashes and it

suddenly became the sole symbol of hope for the community who had not even begun to pick up

the pieces of their destroyed worlds. The media seized upon the story, and before anyone

realized it, Beauty Among the Ashes was a worldwide rallying cry for the town of Paradise.

Hope existed. Even with such a fresh wound, the town, and the world beyond could see that

there was hope on the horizon.