In the last few weeks, our community has been rocked with a devastating fire and heartbreaking mudslide.  This place that we call home looks very different, and it feels very different.

We have a unique niche- part art, and part heart.  When our Latitudes Family stops by now, we ask for their status update and hold our breath.  More often than not, our exhale is with relief that their homes were spared… but sometimes it is a sigh of sorrow.  We love our community and hate to see it suffering.
One thing we weren’t expecting, was to hear from our Latitudes Family who lost their homes, so quickly after the fire.  It seemed strange to us that replacing lost artwork was so high on anyone’s list.  But we came to discover something we never really knew before-  artwork has a power that we just don’t realize.  When you are uprooted unexpectedly, and staring at blank walls in a new place with nothing that feels like home, familiar artwork can be the anchor that you need to begin to recover again.  Looking around a room and seeing your favorite little turtle or landscape of your town, or the pier that you and your partner picked out years ago, can give you hope for tomorrow.  We didn’t know how much our artwork impacted people on such a subconscious level until now, and we are truly humbled by it.  Objects carry with them energy and stories. To hear that “she just wants her Two Trees back on the wall”, breaks our hearts and opens us up deeper and in new ways, every time.  It makes us understand ourselves and others better, it makes us better artists, and, better humans.
This Saturday is our first Arts & Eats since the Thomas Fire.  We are dedicating the event to our community.  We will be highlighting images of our hillsides and towns impacted by fire to remind us all that we are stronger together and that we will rebuild, recover, and grow.  That there is hope for tomorrow.

During the event we will be announcing the donation amount raised from our 2018 Ventura Calendar for the Thomas Fire Fund, and to keep the love flowing, we will be donating all poster sales during the event to the Thomas Fire Fund.  Thank you for being the change and making a difference!

This disaster has changed the landscape of our land, lives and hearts.  We will never forget, but we will rise again, together, stronger than ever.  Thank you for being a part of our Latitudes Family.