Jordan Heber can’t give people their homes back, so he does the best he can.

A Los Angeles woman is painting watercolors for people — for free — of their homes that have been destroyed by recent wildfires. And she is not alone.

“It’s a perpetuation of something they’ve lost,” Heber said As it happens host Nil Köksal. “You can’t give it back to them. But it’s almost, in a way, trying.”

The fires that swept through LA last month killed more than two dozen people and destroyed more than 16,000 buildings, according to Cal Fire.

‘He brought a glimmer of light’

When Heber first time posted about her idea on TikTok, she thought she would get requests from a handful of people in her own social circle.

“And then it just took off. It went viral and I was amazed,” she said.

Heber, who works full-time as a brand strategist, says she is inundated with requests, some from people who have lost their homes, others who want to make watercolors for their friends and family members who have lost theirs.

On Wednesday, she said she has completed three watercolors so far and is working on about 25 more, prioritizing requests from people directly affected by the fires.

But the first one she built wasn’t a house at all.

“They reached out and said, you know, I’m a teacher here and we lost a school, and it’s just devastating that these kids don’t have a place to go to school. That was so heartwarming to hear and I wanted help,” she said.

The teacher, he says, was immensely grateful for the picture.

“She said she was brought to tears, actually, she was so happy and it brought a glimmer of light.”

Every picture tells a story

Heber says she was inspired to take action by another LA artist’s Instagram post which offered to draw sketches of people’s homes for free.

Like Heber, Asher Bingham says she just expected her post to reach friends and friends of friends.

“I thought, if I build 10, if I build 20 houses, that would be such a gift,” Bingham told the CBC.

Two weeks later, she has received more than 1,000 requests and counting.

“It’s a mixed bag of emotions. It’s happy. It’s sad. It’s heartbreaking. It’s beautiful,” she said. “They want to share those memories, and so, attached to these pictures, come little impressions and sentences … that explain the case around the loss of their home.”

One person, she says, told her how her father ran away from home so quickly, the only thing he managed to do the shoes were off.

Another wrote about giving birth in a hospital while her house burned to the ground.

“Really, really heartbreaking stories,” Bingham said.

But her most intimate sketch, she says, was the first one she drew for a friend who was getting married in Las Vegas when the fires broke out.

Bingham was able to save the woman’s cats the day before the house was engulfed in flames.

“The next morning I woke up to a message. You know, she sent a picture of the destruction, and there was nothing left,” Bingham said.

“And I didn’t know what to say… You lost your first house the day you got married. There are no words for that. So I said, I can draw her a house.”

Sketch artist gathers a team

As the requests piled up, Bingham quickly realized she would need help if she wanted to fulfill them all. Therefore, she announced herself on social networks.

Now she has people helping her in the field and organizing requests as they come in. She shared the work with 17 other artists, all of whom volunteered their time and effort. A local printer prints them for free. Another person donated the shipping costs.

“The people who have come out of their mouths to help us. It’s just remarkable,” she said.

She’s also seen others do similar things, like an artist who paints portraits of pets that died in a fire or someone who offers to recreate ruined quilts.

“In LA, we don’t hear happy messages all the time. We always hear about politics and crying and things being broken and stolen and, you know, how awful people are in these neighborhoods, in those neighborhoods,” Bingham said.

“There are really good people here and they’re thriving, which is really sweet.”

Heber, says he can close his eyes and imagine a future where someone moves into their home and hangs one of his old man’s watercolors.

“These days we’re obsessed with instant gratification. And that, to me, is the opposite. It’s delayed, prolonged or permanent, like a warm feeling every time you pass it,” she said.

“And the fact that I can one day bring that to someone’s new home is very special. And I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to do that.”