The Brief

After sculptor and printmaker Camilla Taylor lost their home, studio and nearly all possessions, including their artwork, to the Eaton Fire in January 2025, they attended groups processing grief and sadness. Taylor didn’t feel sadness though — they felt deep, deep anger.

Anger that “something so big was taken away from me.”

Anger at the “extreme inconvenience” of their loss.

Anger at themselves for being upset when comparing their loss relative to “people in Gaza who are actively being subjected to a genocide.”

Anger that people minimized their lost artwork as merely objects, when these were the objects they made.

“As an artist, I define myself by the objects I create and can create. … The objects are who I am and now they’re gone,” they said.

Showcased in the Post-Fire 1 group show running until June 1 are artworks Taylor and others made after the fires that tap into an array of emotions. The show evokes unease in warped window frames and a whirling floor-facing fan, and finds hope in drawings of colorful plants growing aside charred tree trunks.

Taylor’s piece titled "Fury" hangs from the wall in the shape of a shiny cloak, made of hundreds of etched and handcut copper feathers, to represent the Greco-Roman mythological creature the Furies. Another artwork has the word “rage” etched in a copper silhouette of a grease moth.

Post-Fire 1 features 22 artists from the Altadena area who experienced the traumatic loss of homes and studios due to the Eaton fire. The Des Artistes organization plans for this 2026 show to be the first of four annual shows in support of artists who were affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires.

Camilla Taylor’s piece “Fury,” an etched and hand-cut copper sculpture shaped like a cloak, is displayed during the “Post-Fire 1” show in Culver City. The work explores rage and gentleness through layered copper feathers inspired by the Greek Furies and Taylor’s experience rescuing an injured Pacific loon.

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Julie Leopo for LAist

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Camilla Taylor’s piece “Caretaker (Grease Moth),” an etched and hand-cut copper sculpture, is on display in the “Post-Fire 1” show in Culver City. The work references the grease moth, one of the few moth species observed feeding on human corpses, and explores emotions of rage and anger.

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Julie Leopo for LAist

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In a public talk tied to the exhibition, artist Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio said before the fires a lot of his work was socially inclined, but he did not really have a social practice as he does now.

He found that “doing things beyond myself and being involved in other community projects has been really healing.” Aparicio has worked on a memorial project in Altadena’s Triangle Park, hearing community members share stories about the fire, their lives, and what Altadena has meant to them.

Recovery through connection

Connectedness plays an important role in recovery from a traumatic event.

“Social support turns out to be one of the biggest predictors of recovery,” said Robin Jacobowitz, interim director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at SUNY New Paltz. “Also, the level of perceived social support you have, that includes everything from strong family ties and/or peer networks, community support.”

Jacobowitz said that after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 there was a lot of outmigration due to the long road to recovery and its challenges. “Having strong social ties has been shown to even prevent that,” said Jacobowitz, while recognizing that structural issues still remain, like the loss of housing, lack of insurance or employment opportunities.

Still, these ties may provide social, financial support, or even just accurate information. Jacobowitz said research has shown faith institutions drew the Vietnamese community back to New Orleans.

“When people have those community institutions involved in recovery, they stay,” she said.

Organizing for those who lost homes

Jacobowitz said communities begin to heal by acknowledging their loss, “through memorials, legacy, or anniversary events,” she said. “The loss is honored and now part of the community story and the community’s life, and how the community will continue to function and thrive together.”

After the fires, as acts of altruism spread across Los Angeles, Taylor was invited to participate in art shows where organizers would receive no commission so that proceeds would go directly to its artists, who self-identified as fire victims. Taylor was surprised to meet more than one artist who participated but had no real direct relation to the fire. They said one artist did not live in an area where the fires burned.

Upset at people taking advantage of the situation, Taylor channeled this anger to doing what they were already good at doing, which is curating shows. A connector in their own right, Taylor organized an intimate group show titled, “My House Burned Down,” which recognized artists who lost homes in the recent and older fires.

Taylor also helped to co-curate "Post-Fire 1."

Camilla Taylor sculpts a piece resembling a braid in lost wax before it is cast in bronze.

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Julie Leopo for LAist

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Taylor said the anger they've felt has lessened. “It’s really exhausting. It takes so much energy to be angry.”

Anger is a common, if powerful, emotional reaction to loss, among other emotions, according to the authors of the book Disaster Mental Health Theory and Practice, James Halpern and Mary Tramontin. Emotional reactions after a disaster can depend on a variety of factors, including an individual’s history. For Taylor, they said they have historically had a tendency toward anger in response to trauma, going back to their childhood.

Taylor said they do not make art to heal, but rather to understand. In discussing their artwork Fury, Taylor explained that “the Furies could punish the gods for breaking divine law with extreme self-awareness.” Fury was part of a body of work around transformation and becoming a completely new thing.

Taylor clarified though that their art is not about themselves. If it were so specific to their own experience, then the art would just be for them and art would not be doing its “first job,” which is “to communicate.”

Taylor’s artwork in the show titled The Dead, is in reference to the memory of Altadena. On a white paper the word memory is repeated in different lettering styles, made from rubbing a black crayon in the shape of Taylor’s hand, which is also part of the art on display, over different headstones in Altadena’s Mountain View cemetery.

Artwork is displayed during the “Post-Fire 1” show at Des Artistes gallery in Culver City.

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Julie Leopo for LAist

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Taylor used to go on frequent walks through the historic cemetery, which was established in 1882. Century-old headstones and plaques sit among a variety of trees.

“All the houses, like a horseshoe around the cemetery, are completely gone, but the house of the dead is fine,” Taylor said. Taylor described the surviving cemetery as representing the historically Black community, the tree-stump headstones by the fraternal society, the Woodmen of the World, and the waves of immigrants.

“It has archived the history of Altadena,” Taylor said.

“What I really loved about Post-Fire 1 is that many people who came to the opening did not realize what we all had in common.”

The attendees “just thought it was a really good group show.”

Funding for this story was provided by UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, as part of its "Spreading Love Through the Media" initiative, supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

Southern California was built on radio.

"I can still hear the jingle KFWB News 98,” wrote  Taline in Los Feliz, during a recent conversation on LAist's daily news show, AirTalk, which airs on 89.3 FM. “I grew up hearing that in my dad's minivan on the way to and from school. It has a special place in my heart.”

Back in April, broadcast company Audacy announced KNX News — one of the last-remaining all-news FM stations — was leaving the FM dial where it had simulcast on 97.1 FM since 2021. The station, which is also one of the oldest in L.A., is not budging from 1070 AM where it has been on the air for more than 100 years. The move away from FM officially happened in May to make way for a new sports talk station, which Audacy officials called an area of growth for advertisers in today’s media landscape.

The move is one in a long line of changes for radio and a reminder that before podcasts, playlists and algorithms, many Southern Californians built their days around radio broadcasts.

Radio, a daily ritual

The construction of KNX

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Herman J. Schultheis

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Michael Jackson, a well-known KNX, personality

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Larry Mantle, now in his 41st year hosting AirTalk, remembers being a kid and dreaming of what it might be like to be behind the mic at one of these radio stations.

“ I grew up with KNX," he said. “My dream job as a kid was to be an anchor on KNX or KFWB, the two local all-news radio stations, 'cause there was nothing like hosting AirTalk that even existed at that point.”

Mantle opened up the phone lines on a recent show to hear from his fellow SoCal radio lovers about the shows they miss and the memories they have. Here's what they had to say:

A love for radio, then and now  

A pilot of KMPC's traffic alert helicopter pictured with his daughter and grandson.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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A 1963 picture of Valley State College (now Los Angeles Valley College) preparing to launch KVCM

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Larry Leach

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Los Angeles Public Library

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“When you'd walk down Hollywood Boulevard where the station was, you could hear it playing as you went down the street,” said  Olivia in Glendale about KLAC 570 with Al Jarvis.

 Larry in Yorba Linda shouted out KBCA Jazz for its 24-hour jazz, saying “When I first moved out here in '68 from Phoenix, which had like an hour a week, it was a real wonder.”

 Mark in Glassell Park emailed that he loves KCRW’s Henry Rollins, writing, “I used to bristle at his unique DJ persona, but over time, I came to love him and his crazy eclectic playlists. I find his knowledge in history and punk rock fascinating. He's a gem and a legend."

"I'd like to give a shout-out to all the DJs working at KXLU, the college station at Loyola Marymount University, said  Jeremy in Culver City in an email. “That station's been on the air for nearly 60 years. I believe it's one of the best examples of what's possible with radio."

"KFWB and KRLA back in the day when they were rock music stations —  Dr. Demento, one of my favorite on-air personalities, also had eclectic music taste," said  Carrie in Desert Edge.

“ Dr. Demento was must listening when I was a kid in junior high school at Le Conte Junior High in Hollywood,” Mantle added. “Every Sunday night on KMET, we would make sure we were listening to Dr. Demento and his funny records.”

The question remains…

An 11-year-old winning a car in a KMPC contest in 1963.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Listener support is vital to any radio station, and it’s clear KNX has many lifelong fans. AirTalk listeners highlighted their support for household KNX names over the decades like Bill Keene, Melinda Lee, Mike Roy and Jackie Olden.

As KNX makes changes, many are watching closely and thinking about the future of radio.

Listeners like Tommy in La Quinta are left wondering if the radio dial will be the same…

“I’m a hardcore listener, but I don't know about casual listeners [and] if they'll tune to AM,” he said.

After months of hand-wringing, Los Angeles and LA28 have come to a tentative agreement on how Olympics organizers will reimburse the city for its expenses for the 2028 Summer Games.

According to the deal, the private Olympic organizing committee will pay upfront for the estimated cost of services that are not eligible for federal reimbursement, like trash pick-up and traffic control. Under another proposal, the city would also be able to tap an LA28 contingency fund if it isn't fully repaid by the federal government for policing costs at Olympic venues.

The agreement is nearly nine months overdue and still needs approval by Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council.

The 2028 Olympics are intended to be privately financed, and an existing city agreement with LA28 states that the Olympics organizers, not L.A., will pay for extra costs for public services in support of the Games. But L.A. is the financial back-stop for the Olympics, meaning if LA28 goes in the red, taxpayers will pick up the bill.

Beyond that, the city services agreement presents another area where L.A. could incur additional unexpected expenses for hosting the Games. L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez warned LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover earlier this year that a bad deal could "bankrupt" the city.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, an LA28 spokesperson, and Paul Krekorian, who leads the city's office of major events, said in statements that the freshly inked agreement would help deliver a fiscally responsible Games.

"Mayor Bass’ priority is that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games be fiscally responsible, protect taxpayers, and benefit Angelenos for decades to come. This agreement helps deliver that commitment," Krekorian said.

But the contract between the two parties doesn't fully resolve one of the biggest areas of financial risk for the city: the enormous cost of security for an event as extensive and high-profile as the summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Organizers are counting on the federal government to pay for public safety at Olympic venues that are considered part of a "national special security event." That includes costs for LAPD staffing. LA28 has not included security costs in its $7.1 billion budget — a fact that City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto criticized earlier this year.

The federal government has so far allocated $1 billion for security costs for the Olympics. Exactly where those federal funds will go has not yet been determined, and there's no guarantee they will cover all of L.A.'s policing costs.

To address this, city officials have also proposed an amendment to a 2021 agreement between the city and LA28. That amendment would establish that if L.A. is not reimbursed by the federal government for all its eligible expenses, it could dip into LA28's contingency fund of $270 million before the private organizing committee could use those funds for any legacy projects.

But that bucket of money will first be used for any costs that Olympics organizers still owe if they run out of revenue — meaning if the Olympics don't turn a profit, the city's access to that money will depend on how much is left for the taking.

Civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who has been tracking the city's negotiations with LA28, told LAist the agreement was a "PR document" not a deal. She pointed out that if the federal government does not pay up for security spending as expected, L.A. could be in trouble.

" It leaves the taxpayers with a GoFundMe strategy," she said.

The city services agreement lays the groundwork for more negotiations between LA28 and the city. Each venue will require its own agreement, to be negotiated by July 1, 2027. Venues in the city of L.A. include Dodger Stadium, the L.A. Convention Center, L.A. Memorial Coliseum and the Venice Beach Boardwalk.

The City Council's ad-hoc committee on the 2028 Games will meet Tuesday afternoon to vote on the agreement.