The juxtaposition of beauty and devastation—journey with Shane Grammer on his mission to create

: Hope Through Art

There were few instances of beauty amidst the rubble left behind by the Camp Fire. New life signaled by a flower budding out of the ashes and colorful wildlife returning to the area, juxtaposed against environments totally devoid of color, were the few glimmers of hope we all needed and clung to in what felt like a sea of hopelessness. When local artist Shane Grammer saw the destruction for himself, he felt called to commemorate what was lost and return beauty to an area where there was none.

Creative from a young age, Shane Grammer found his first foray into art when he was 10 years old. He began sketching characters from a Walt Disney book and discovered it was the perfect outlet for his creativity. Sketches turned into crafting, and crafting led to building. Eventually, he found himself making Pinewood Derby cars, sculpting a 6-foot African mask, and drawing whenever he could find the free time. “I didn’t think I would be an artist.” Shane remembered, “I certainly never had aspirations to be one, but as I started making things and taking classes from Mr. Simmons at Chico High School, I began to realize I had a knack for it.”

Though Shane was naturally gifted at art, basketball was his identity throughout high school. After graduating, he found himself without direction. He attended Butte College and chose to major in art but only lasted a semester and a half. After getting cut from the basketball team, he decided college wasn’t the path for him after all. He returned to building things, working jobs in construction and taking any opportunity he could to explore outlets for his creativity.

“A friend was doing a documentary on New York graffiti.” Shane explained, “He was watching the Style Wars documentary, and it blew me away. I started doing graffiti legally for youth groups and business owners—I even practiced inside a bee keeping company in Durham. The owner told me I could come in and paint all day and all night. It was a freedom like none other.” Youth With a Mission opened doors to the outside world for Shane, offering him a position to work at an inner city youth ministry in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. The stark contract from Chico’s atmosphere opened his eyes as well. Immersed by graffiti and hip hop, he was constantly exposed to street and contemporary art wherever he went. Shane found the early 90s street art scene in San Francisco to be far more amazing than the art he saw documented in Style Wars. “There was a free wall area for artists called Psycho City, and I was absolutely blown away by the art I saw there. Street artists were always on hand painting incredible murals. It hooked me like nothing else had, and I began seeking out mural projects from youth pastors. They’d pay me a couple hundred dollars and provide me with food to paint a mural. My first paid job was in San Jose which led to painting a graffiti mural on stage in front of 5,000 people. That opened the door to Dallas, Texas, and people started asking me if I could do props, so I transitioned into stage sets.”

The transition into stage sets led to scenic art, which became the lionshare of Shane’s life’s work. He opened his own shop and began creating art for private clients but was soon noticed by larger outfits like Universal Studios, Disney, and many others. He designed and helped fabricate numerous environments for their theme parks which, although awesome to outsiders, was not what he was passionate about.

“I felt like I was losing myself a bit.” Shane explained, “I was having a bit of a mid-life crisis. I told my wife, Missy, I needed to get back to being creative, and she encouraged me to do just that. I loved the work of photographers who shot abandoned locations, so I began following street art again and traveling to paint murals in abandoned buildings and distressed locations. There’s something amazing about creating something beautiful in a place that’s been destroyed. My travels took me to Cambodia, Mexican orphanages, and a number of locations that were wrought with drug addiction and despair. One day, while I was painting at an abandoned water park, I looked at my phone and started seeing photos and videos of the Camp Fire in Paradise, and I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

Shane drove north and met with his close friends Shane and Jennifer Edwards. He saw a photo of their chimney left behind by the fire and asked if it would be ok with them if he painted a mural on it; the two agreed. A month later, they met at Cozy Diner in Chico, and the two shared their survival story with Shane. They drove up to Paradise together, and Shane completed the mural within three hours. He titled this first piece Beauty Among the Ashes. “I honestly thought no one would care.” Shane said, “We documented it with photos and a video which Shane Edwards posted to the Paradise Camp Fire Survivor’s page, and it went viral. I completed five more murals within the first week, and all of a sudden, I was bombarded by international media.” Shane’s murals quickly found their way to the covers of the LA Times, NY Times, and Washington Post. They were even featured on the A.P. and CNN’s weather

channel. In all, Shane completed 26 separate murals for the Town of Paradise, returning hope and a sense of community to the embattled town and using the murals and press to raise money for Camp Fire survivors.

The experience prompted Shane to take things a step further. He created a foundation called Hope Through Art in 2021 to raise money for Paradise and areas that had been through similar disasters. He originally expected to complete 3 to 6 projects during the first year but ended up doing 14 projects instead, all of which were fully funded. Some of his most notable projects have been an art installation in the middle of a forest to bring attention to child trafficking and three separate projects for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, one of which was at the railroad tracks near Chico State.

In the coming years, Shane hopes to extend his foundation to provide a number of educational projects for students where they can learn the business behind art and take part in a weeklong project together that benefits a community. Last year, he was able to lead three of these as a proof of concept.

“I still run into people that will fall into my arms and cry.” Shane said, “It’s incredible how much art can affect us and leave a lasting impression. We have a new book coming out called Beauty Amongst the Ashes that shares survivor stories and photos. Every year we do a calendar signing at the Paradise Arts Center, and they now have their own line of prints and apparel of the original murals. All of the proceeds go directly back to them, and it’s wonderful to see the change it's able to make on The Ridge. Nowadays, giving is what I’m most passionate about.”

To see Shane’s most recent work, visit his website at www.ShaneGrammer.com and don’t forget to check out his Hope Through Art Foundation on Facebook. We have no doubt we’ll be seeing incredible things from him and his foundation in the years to come.