A few hours before last Sunday’s Super Bowl kickoff, Vroman’s bookstore in Pasadena was bustling with shoppers who were either escaping the big game or racing home to see it. And on a bench with a view of the store’s wine bar, a man sat quietly engaged with his handheld device.
The slim rectangular object absorbing his attention wasn’t a cellphone: It was an elegant case for paints, paper and art supplies that he designed himself.
Keni Arts, as Keni Davis is known, was friendly and willing to talk – so long as he could keep painting.
“I’m very shy and almost anti-social, but for some reason when I’m painting I can talk to people,” says the artist, a prolific chronicler of Altadena and Pasadena landmarks with the en plein-air paintings he shares on social media and sells at Vroman’s and his website.
“Not that I don’t like people, but it’s just my nature is to be kind of reserved,” he says. “There’s something that comes alive when I have my paint brush in my hand. It’s hard to explain.”
(This bookstore conversation had been impromptu, but the artist and I had once met at a party – we both know people connected to Occidental College – when we’d both been standing off to the side by ourselves like wallflowers.)
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As he works in his blue NASA T-shirt and Amazing Stories cap, so focused and relaxed, he describes the loss of his home and his artwork in the Eaton fire. That wasn’t all.
“My wife is a quilter,” he says, praising her artistry. “She does some beautiful quilts, and sadly, we did not get one quilt out of the house.”
He speaks with equal pride about his two daughters, one successful in the corporate world, and the other, artist Kenturah Davis, who also lost her Altadena home – and nearly her studio – along with work that had been in her parents’ home.
“Between Kenturah’s paintings, some of those were lost in my house as well, and my wife’s quilts…,” he says, his voice trailing off. “That really was a hard thing for me.”
And surely it was difficult to lose his own work.
“My paintings, yeah, I lost a lot,” he says. “But, you know, I’ll just do more.”
His recent work has drawn attention in the days after the Eaton fire. In a series called “Beauty from Ashes,” he returns to places where he’d made artwork and paints the locations as they are now, often showing the burnt, twisted wreckage of beloved local businesses and landmarks.
Asked about the response to those images, he says it’s been positive despite the painful imagery.
“Surprisingly good. I was a little concerned about it because, you know, I’m doing it partly as a way to help myself heal and go through the process. Painting is the way I cope with things.
“To show all of the damage and destruction, I wasn’t sure if other people would receive it the same way, but 99 percent of the comments have been favorable,” he says. “People said they appreciate that I’m capturing it in a way that is not as painful as just looking at a photograph.
“Art has a way to speak to people sometimes that photos don’t,” he says. “So, I’m happy I can do that.”
His work has been in demand as he works on new paintings for those who lost everything.
“I am focusing right now on the people who commissioned work before, and I’m doing that at no charge to them,” he says. “I’ve been pretty busy, but I’m going to make sure they have a new painting of their house.
“And then others who’ve lost homes, it may take a while to get to them, but I’m going to do as many of those as possible,” he says, adding that the work of reconstructing a life only allows about three days a week to paint.
“Everything seems to be so time-consuming,” he says.
As for the future, he remains hopeful for those affected by the fires.
“I tell people, especially young people, I say, Listen, I’m an old guy; I’ve been through a lot. You’re going to get through this. There were things that I dealt with as a younger person that I thought, I’ll never recover from this, and as long as I kept pushing forward, things happened.
“I’ve been blessed to have a very good life. I’ve got a wonderful family and supportive friends, and so that’s really what it’s about,” he says. “Find something that you enjoy doing and do it. If you have some friends, get together with them, have dinner with them, do whatever you can to have some fun.
“For people who’ve lost their home, find out what you love to do, find your passion – cooking, sewing, whatever it is – and do that. Take your mind off of the problem, and focus on what you really enjoy doing. I think it’s one of the greatest ways to cope,” he says. “And you know, if people need counseling, don’t be afraid to do that. There’s no shame in saying, ‘I’m hurt and I need help.’”
And now it’s time for him to return to painting, which is the reason he chose his current seat, a favorite resting spot for weary shoppers and the patient companions to avid book browsers.
This time, the artist is making a different sort of before and after painting.
“I did a painting at this exact spot several years ago,” he says, and two separate customers wanted the same piece, which led one to ask if he’d make a copy.
Rather, he had a different idea. “I figured I’d just come sit here and do it instead of copying it from another painting,” he said.
“I’m trying to fulfill a kind of promise.”
For more information, go to the artist’s website.
