Suddenly, Grammer realized that what he had thought was a purely artistic expression had morphed into something deeper, the hallmark of true art.
突然间,格拉默意识到他之前认为的简单艺术表达已经演变成更深层次的东西,真正艺术的标志。
"When the first mural moved so many people in this community, I knew I had to come back up," Grammer told KRCR-TV in Redding.
格拉默告诉雷丁市的KRCR电视台,“当第一幅壁画感动了这个社区这么多人的时候,我知道我必须回来。
Over a period of three months he returned eight times, painting 17 portraits of victims and Biblical figures on walls, pickups, and shards of buildings. "There is hope," he explains.
在3个月的时间里,他回来了8次,在墙上、小卡车和建筑物的碎片上画了17幅受害者和圣经人物的画像。“还有希望,”他解释道。
"There is beauty in the ashes. "Outside one house, he found a photo of an eight-year-old named Eleanor.
灰烬中有美丽。“在房子外面,他发现了一个名为埃莉诺的8岁小孩的照片。
Seeing it as a sign, he painted a mural of her on the lone wall of her home that was left standing.
他以这张照片为素材,在小孩家中仅剩的一面墙上画了一幅她的壁画。
It was, Grammer says, "a stamp that life was here and that life can continue to be here."
它标记着生命曾出现在这里,并且生命可以继续留在这里。”
The portrait had special meaning for the home's owner. Eleanor's father, Greg Weddig,
这幅肖像画对这个家庭的主人有着特别含义。埃莉诺的父亲,格雷格·韦迪格
recalls how she used to play just feet away from where the mural was painted.
回忆起她曾经是如何在离壁画只有几英尺远的地方玩耍的。
"She would constantly be digging in the mud. And it was right below the kitchen windows, so we could always keep an eye on her," he says.
“她会不停地在泥里挖洞。而且就在厨房窗户的正下方,所以我们可以一直盯着她,”他说。
"The tree that was there was this beautiful maple that just made everything in the kitchen red."
“那里的那棵树是一棵美丽的枫树,它把厨房里的一切都染成了红色。”
Eleanor herself returned once to admire the painting. Grammer's work in Paradise has now become a movement.
埃莉诺自己有一次也回到这里欣赏这幅画作。格拉默在天堂镇作画已经成为了一项活动。
He has traveled the world painting murals in dark places that sorely needed some light:
他一直旅行于世界各地,在非常需要光线的黑暗地方画壁画:
an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico; a youth ministry in San Francisco; a nonprofit for child sex-trafficking survivors in Cambodia.
或者在墨西哥的提华纳的孤儿院;旧金山的青年事工;柬埔寨一家非营利性的儿童拐卖幸存者组织。
"I want to do something powerful and create art that moves people," he says.
他说,“我想做一些有影响力的事情,创造可以感动人的艺术。”
Ironically, that first painting, on the chimney in Paradise, survived only a few months—the bulldozer is a cruel art critic.
讽刺的是,他在天堂镇的烟囱上画的第一幅画仅存活了几个月-推土机是个残酷的艺术评论家。
Grammer couldn't be more delighted. It means that the spirit of Paradise is rising again.
格拉默不能再高兴了。这意味着天堂镇的活力再次恢复了。