“As The Sun Rose” painting exhibition takes us through a first hand account of the devastating Eaton Canyon Fire, that took place on January 7th 2025. All the works were painted from inside the Fire Zone by Alejandro M Lopez a resident of Altadena who moves us through the Trauma, Melancholy and Ultimately Hope in the Re-Birth of Nature. The exhibition is intended to create a dialogue around how Climate Change impacts people revealing a unique vision that goes beyond words.
As a survivor of the January 7th 2025 Eaton Canyon Fire, Alejandro used his “One with Nature” art practice to connect with the unfathomable destruction and human suffering that occurred when Climate Change directly impacted his community in Altadena, California.
The climate crisis must not be the story of loss that I experienced but rather must become a story of redemption, rebirth, and change. My paintings capture the spiritual nature, the grounding energy of our shared existence with the natural world. By learning to love and respect nature we love and respect ourselves, that is the change needed to make a difference for a new world.
I became an environmental artist and activist through a personal transcendental experience which allowed me to be re-born into nature. Years ago while painting in Zion, I became suddenly overwhelmed by a vibrational energy.
The mountains, the rocks the trees the sky became alive and fluid to me, and I no longer felt like a spectator of the natural world but inherently one with it.
As a society we have lost the ability to recognize our fundamental connection to nature. We have lost the sense that the nature god, lives within us and in all things, and as a result we are losing a sustainable life-force on earth. I believe we instinctively know that to love and respect nature is to love and respect ourselves because we are nature and nature is us. We must find that inside ourselves and infuse a love for nature in those around us, especially future generations who will face the greatest hardships from our past disconnection.
