Keni “Arts” Davis has been painting his Altadena neighborhood for decades.

Though he’s trotted the globe, painting everything from the landscapes of Brazil to the streets of European cities, the ‘Denas’ — a term many locals, including Davis, affectionately use to refer to Altadena and Pasadena — is where his artistic journey truly flourished.

Related: New LA museum exhibit honors the Black artistic legacies of Altadena

Since the 1980s, Davis has stood on street corners painting en plein air, or outside, chronicling neighborhood mainstays from the Altadena Post Office to Steve’s Bike Shop. Davis also sketched Hollywood back lots and movie sets while working on “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Star trek.”

His main method of painting, through watercolor techniques, captures the vibrancy and diversity of everyday life in Altadena. Throughout the years, Davis has documented his city and all of its transformations, equally painting the cherished historical institutions and the newer cafés, restaurants, and shops as they opened.

But no transformation was as drastic as the one that took place during the Eaton fire, which took away nearly all of Davis’ life work overnight.

As the mammoth fire tore through his beloved city of Altadena, destroying more than 9,000 homes and businesses, Davis lost his house of 38 years and, inside of it, all of his paintings.

Within 48 hours of the fire, Davis took his kit and began painting the destruction, returning to the sites he’s been documenting for fifty years. He moved through street corners, standing in solitude with his easel and paintbrush. With smoke still lingering in the air, Davis captured the remains of the institutions he painted before, which have since been reduced to rubble.

Related: Community ultra-marathon will bridge Altadena to Pacific Palisades, raise funds for wildfire relief

Painting, for Davis, has not only been a way to cope with the loss, but also as a way to document this transitional moment in Altadena’s history.

He channeled his creativity and love for Altadena into a series of watercolor paintings called “Beauty for Ashes”, which was first presented to the public on May 2 at the Altadena Community Library, nearly 100 days after the Eaton fire. The name of the exhibit comes from a verse from the Book of Isaiah in the Bible: “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes.”

“I actually got that [name] from my daughter because right after the fire, she sent me a text with that scripture. And that kind of gave me encouragement to just keep pushing forward,” Davis, who plans to rebuild in Altadena, told me.

“Beauty for Ashes,” which is on display until May 31, “reimagines Altadena in its moment of transition, documenting destruction, renewal, and hope.” Paintings of those spaces, before and after the fire, are placed side-by-side along the walls of the library’s main room.

Davis’ chronicles of Altadena throughout the years have unearthed the city’s history, helping not just residents, but those outside, make sense of just how immense the loss was.

“I don’t call you victims, I call you survivors,” Davis told the crowd at his gallery opening. “We are also overcomers.”

The exhibit is held in the library’s main branch, which miraculously survived and re-opened two months after the fire. However, just a block away, other places were not as fortunate. The Altadena Senior Center was completely destroyed in the Eaton fire, which is among those depicted in Davis’ exhibit. Historical Altadena establishments, including 67-year-old Fox’s Restaurant and the Bunny Museum, containing the world’s largest collection of rabbits, were also featured.

Like other places in the city, Davis has a particular fondness for the Altadena libraries, who he cited as a supporter of his work throughout the years. He expressed his gratitude towards the libraries’ staff, including District Director for the Altadena Library District, Nicky Winslow.

“While Keni’s art captures Altadena in its transition, it also evokes a feeling of hope, of renewal,” Winslow stated. “Altadena’s more than just a lovely place…it’s a community of people—people like Keni, who make it beautiful.”

Davis gifted Winslow and the Altadena Libraries with a painting of the future Bob Lucas Library, which has been under renovation since 2024.

“I would like for the library to have this painting. It just means a lot to me because the library was still standing,” Davis expressed. “I came up the day after the fire, and I heard on the radio that the Altadena Library was gone, and it wasn’t.”

Located on Altadena’s west side — a historically Black community due to 1960s racial zoning laws — the library is named after the Black writer and Altadena resident, Bob Lucas, who saw literacy as a vital skill for opportunity and achievement. Lucas recognized the need for a library on the west side, especially for youth and those who couldn’t travel to the main branch. The library officially opened in 1991 as the “Bob Lucas Memorial Branch Library and Literacy Center.”

“I’ve been watching the development (of the Bob Lucas Library) for a long time,” Davis stated, who captured a construction crew working on the library in his painting, but also the future of what the library would look like.

Lucas was part of a burgeoning Black arts and literary community in Altadena in the latter half of the 20th century. Science fiction writer Octavia Butler and painter Charles White were also residents of Altadena’s west side.

That legacy is still ongoing in Altadena. Davis’ wife, Mildred Davis, is a craft quilter, and their daughter, Kenturah Davis, who also lost her home in the Eaton fire, is a contemporary artist.

Kenturah is one of the curators of the “Ode to Dena” exhibit at the California African American Museum, which lauds the enduring legacy of Black creativity and cultural heritage in Altadena. The exhibit showcases three generations of Davis family art — from Kenturah, her parents, and two-year-old daughter.

“I’m so grateful (my dad) was able to save a slice of this rich pictorial archive,” Kenturah stated in an Instagram post. “and he’s back at it, tenderly painting the ruins of our precious town.”

Now, as he and the rest of Altadena clean up the debris and begin rebuilding, Davis is determined to capture that, too — “until Altadena rises from the ashes.”