The Healing Power of Art
Author: Antoinette Peragine
When fires tore through our beloved Los Angeles recently, they didn’t just claim homes and landscapes; they took pieces of people’s lives—pieces that no insurance policy can replace. While it’s true that surviving with your life, your family, and your pets is a blessing, the loss of material possessions carries a deeper weight than many realize.
Material possessions are not just “things.” They are anchors to our memories, reflections of the lives we’ve built, and physical manifestations of moments we hold dear. A favorite book passed down through generations, a painting that hung on the wall of your first home, the delicate ornament your child made in kindergarten—all of these objects tether us to who we are and where we’ve been.
When a fire wipes everything clean, it can feel like a forced purification—a stripping away not just of possessions but of the stories they tell. And that loss doesn’t happen all at once. It unfolds over time. Days, weeks, even months after the fire, you remember something else that’s gone forever. It’s a quiet, persistent grief, one object and one memory at a time.
Photo by Norman Seeff - Caption by Antoinette Peragine: "Even at daybreak, as the fires continue to rage, Los Angeles stands haunting in her beauty."
I recently read a post from a friend who lost everything in the Woolsey Fire. She shared how, even now, long after the flames have been extinguished, she continues to realize what is missing. Each new awareness of a lost item feels like mourning another small part of her identity. Her words struck a deep chord in me. They reminded me of how I chose what to take with me when I had to evacuate, and how art—both my own and others’—rose to the top of the list.
Listening to others who have gone through similar losses, I’ve heard many stories about art: the paintings they managed to save, the sculptures too large to carry, the treasured works left behind. In moments of devastation, art seems to take on an even greater importance. It’s not just about what’s beautiful or irreplaceable—it’s about what sustains us.
Art, in all its forms, becomes essential when we’ve experienced so much loss. It reminds us of beauty when the world feels ugly. It gives us a place to grieve, to reflect, and, eventually, to heal. Whether it’s a painting, a photograph, or a piece of music, art has a unique power to hold our memories, comfort our hearts, and bring us back to ourselves.
These fires have been physically devastating, but they’ve also left scars on the hearts and minds of so many. The path to healing is long, but it’s in moments like these that we realize how much art matters—not just as decoration, but as a lifeline to our humanity, our culture, and the collective memory we share.
What would you save if you had only minutes to flee? The answer says a lot about what we hold closest to our hearts. For me, it was art—because while it cannot replace the lives we’ve built, it has the power to help us rebuild them.
Referenced In This Blog: Pamela Robbins