{"id":51629,"date":"2025-11-13T19:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/51629\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T19:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:13:10","slug":"csuf-student-uses-art-to-deal-with-loss-of-family-home-in-2025-altadena-eaton-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/51629\/","title":{"rendered":"CSUF Student Uses Art to Deal with Loss of Family Home in 2025 Altadena Eaton Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Through the Burnt Window by Mia Aghili \u2013 Courtesy of Mia Aghili<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since January 2025,\u00a0when the Altadena Eaton Fire\u00a0demolished\u00a0her family\u2019s home, Mia\u00a0Aghili, a fourth-year undergraduate art education student at Cal State Fullerton,\u00a0has been\u00a0making\u00a0art\u00a0to\u00a0cope with and\u00a0reflect on\u00a0conflicting feelings of\u00a0loss, displacement, memory and endurance. Halfway through her final semester at CSUF, Aghili\u2019s\u00a0education and artistic practice\u00a0have become increasingly\u00a0intertwined with\u00a0the\u00a0familial\u00a0and personal.\u00a0This\u00a0amalgamation of experiences\u00a0and personal loss\u00a0stemming from the fire\u00a0was\u00a0put on full display and\u00a0visually represented within\u00a0Aghili\u2019s\u00a0moving\u00a0solo art showcase,\u00a0Scars and Endurance, which recently closed on November 1, 2025, inside CSUF\u2019s College of the Arts Leo Freedman Gallery. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Aghili said, \u201cArt making has been my way of processing the confusing and tumultuous feelings I\u2019ve been experiencing since the fire in January\u2026Rather, art making is my release and expression of emotions in a healthy manner. I found that as an artist, it\u2019s not healthy for me to bottle up my feelings. It\u2019s essential that I continue to make art during difficult times because not creating art is even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Altadena Eaton Fire was on January 7, 2025.\u00a0One week later, Aghili had to return to CSUF to start her spring semester classes. All she could think about was the loss and the shock of losing her home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u200bShe said, \u201cThere was never an alternative idea for the gallery exhibition.\u00a0I\u2019ve been using the past 10 months to channel these complex emotions into my show.\u00a0In fact, the exhibition made me motivated. It gave me a purpose on where to put my thoughts and energy. It\u2019s why I feel so validated and appreciative of\u00a0all\u00a0the people who came to my show. The public\u2019s reaction to my show reminded me that my\u00a0experience\u00a0was seen and not forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

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CSUF student Mia Aghili is making art about the loss of her family home in January\u2019s Altadena Eaton Fire. Photos taken in the gallery during Aghili \u2018s CSUF art show, Scars and Endurance. Photo by Emerson Little<\/p>\n

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Aghili\u2019s exhibition, Scars and Endurance, served as a visual meditation on loss, memory, and regeneration, anchored in the experience of the Eaton Fire.\u00a0She explained that\u00a0this traumatic rupture marked a pivotal shift in her artistic practice from documentation to transformation. Through painting and sculpture, her work\u00a0explores\u00a0the coexistence of destruction and beauty, and how nature persists even as personal landmarks vanish, according to Aghili\u2019s artist statement. The series of paintings and\u00a0her\u00a0sculptural\u00a0centerpiece within the university\u2019s Leo Freedman Gallery were accompanied by projected photographs\u00a0documenting family memories taken inside the home that no longer exists. They were all on display\u00a0at CSUF\u00a0from October 28th to November 1st.<\/p>\n

\u200bIn her own words, \u201cthis series pairs realism with surrealism, memory with materiality. It intentionally blurs the boundary between what was and what remains. These paintings do not aim to recreate devastation, but rather evoke the suspended state between grief and healing. This middle space, the \u2018after\u2019 that is not yet recovery of the fires, has become the subject.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u200bHer family\u2019s reactions to the show were complex. She said that when they first entered the space, they were silent for a long time, taking it all in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u200b\u201cMy parents, in particular, felt a mix of emotions,\u201d said Aghili. \u201cThey told me that since the fire, they\u2019ve been moving so quickly, focused on rebuilding, on being in what my dad described as \u2018fixer mode.\u2019 The work reminded them not only of the loss, but also of the warmth and love that filled our home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u200bWhen\u00a0asked if she thinks the fire and\u00a0loss of her home\u00a0are\u00a0going to continue to influence her art, Aghili responded, \u201cI would say that the fire and loss of my home will continue to influence my work for a long time. The\u00a0aftermath of the fire has profoundly shifted my artistic journey, pushing me to explore materials and techniques I might never have considered before. Through this process, I feel that I\u2019m finally beginning to find my own style and way of artmaking. The aftermath of the Altadena Eaton fire has become the beginning of a new chapter of my life and art.\u201d<\/p>\n

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