Artist donates portraits memorializing homes lost in L.A. fires

Sherry Marger has painted in acrylic for decades — capturing scenes from her travels throughout the United States and abroad — and the garage of her Newport Beach home is a testament to the artist’s dedication to her craft.

- By Sara CARDINE

There, canvases of red-rock Sedona skylines hobnob with portrayals of lush plant life, old-world courtyards and bridges and farmhouses backdropped by autumn in Vermont.

“When people come into may garage they say, ‘Oh, look at this nice art gallery,’” the artist, 78, said recently. “I've got things hanging on walls and on shelves and stashed in avariety of places.”

‘An accomplished amateur, Marger has displayed her creations in small shows at her local library and John Wayne Airport. She also freely offers her work to friends and local organizations, suchas City of Hope or the museum at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life.

“Td rather have people enjoy my paintings than have them sitting in my garage,” she reasoned.

So it’s no surprise when Marger read a February L.A. Times article about Homes in Memoriam, an effort to memorialize homes destroyed in the Palisades and Eaton fires by painting them from photos and then gifting the art to grieving homeowners, she was all in.

“T looked it up and found out what it took to get involved,” Marger recalled. “I signed up right away and started to do [paintings] immediately.”

Homes in Memoriam formed in the days following the January conflagrations as two women who grew up in Pacific Palisades searched for ways to console community members who'd escaped with little more than the shirts on their backs.