Art Out of the Ashes : Remnants from the Laguna fire inspire resident Rob Brennan to craft them into artwork. They make up his first exhibit--aptly titled ‘The Phoenix Project’--at a local gallery.

A day after the Oct. 27 firestorm ravaged his neighbors’ mobile homes, Rob Brennan paused amid the twisted ruins at the El Moro Trailer Park and beheld a strange beauty all around him.

*

A propane tank had exploded into the shape of a heart; sheets of trailer siding were cast into fall colors by the intense heat. The ground was littered with scorched, contorted metal and gracefully melted glass--an eruption of “humor, beauty and delicacy,” Brennan thought.

About three days later, with his neighbors’ permission, the house painter--who was pictured in Time and Newsweek fighting the blaze from his rooftop--began collecting the mesmerizing debris. And an artist was created.

“Seeing what was there, it may sound morbid, but it was beautiful,” said Brennan, 29. “I started picking (the pieces) up. I had no idea what I was going to do with all this, not a clue.”

The value of the ravishing rubble, just a small part of the debris caused by the fire that destroyed 366 homes in Laguna Beach, soon became clear to Brennan when he fashioned some pieces into a wall sculpture and it sold at an art auction for more than $500.

“It was pretty heady stuff for me,” he said. “I figured, hey, I think I’ve got something here. So I just started working.”

With 28 pieces ranging in size from six inches to six feet now complete--two of them a collaborative effort with a friend--Brennan will hold his first art exhibit today at the Sherwood Gallery in Laguna Beach.

He has pledged 15% of the proceeds to the Laguna Fire Relief Coalition, a community-based support group for fire victims.

Anita Mangels, director of the coalition, has previewed the exhibit pieces and called them “spectacular.”

“He’s very intense and I think the work shows an amazing sensitivity and insight,” she said. “I think it’s incredibly moving. For those of us who live in Laguna, it has a meaning that is almost beyond description.”

While Brennan, whose own dwelling was spared, clearly realizes the fire was a horror to hundreds of victims, he said that “for me it was totally a positive experience.”

By crafting art, “I’m trying to make it positive for other people.”

Brennan, who now labors about 45 hours a week in the confines of his tiny studio when not painting houses, seems slightly stunned, not to mention overjoyed, at having been cast into the role of an artist. Brimming with enthusiasm, he points out piles of battered glass, ceramics and metal.

“It’s just a bunch of junk, to be honest with you,” he said. But when he focuses on the individual pieces, he is enthralled.

“All these dents and scratches are from when this just skipped around the mobile home park and blew up,” Brennan said, pointing to a misshapen propane tank leaning against one wall. “To me, this piece is really powerful.”

Lovingly, he holds a melted bottle with a nail protruding from it. The angle of the nail seems exactly right to Brennan.

“This is art right here in itself,” he said. “I did nothing to create it.”

Against the wall is a long rectangular strip of metal siding, a spotty rust and brown. Carefully placed barbecue skewers dangle from its edges. Brennan calls it “Skin on a Skewer.” He figures the piece will fetch $850.

“No painter could ever do this,” said Brennan, whose father is an artist. “The only way you can duplicate this is to take a trailer and start it on fire. To me, what this whole thing is about is finding the beauty in disaster.”

Others are impressed.

Local artist Roark Gourley, who helped organize the earlier art auction to aid fire victims, said his wife, Michelle, bought Brennan’s first sculpture.

“These pieces are so memorable,” said Gourley, who placed Brennan’s artwork above his fireplace. “This is going to be a time you’ll never forget in Laguna. Every time I look at the piece, I just can’t forget that moment. . . . You remember the fire, but you also remember the people coming together in the community. That’s what it really represents.”

Roark Gourley’s ex-wife, Donna, who owns Sherwood Gallery, said Brennan was destined to be an artist.

“This has been such a natural process for Rob,” she said. “It was amazing, absolutely amazing--every piece he’s created has some sort of meaning. . . . It’s really quite touching what he’s done.”

Also included in “The Phoenix Project” exhibit, which will run through April 4, are collaborative pieces by Brennan and friend Lisa Kasprzycki, a former Laguna Beach resident who lives in Maui but was here during the fire.

What will the house painter-turned-artist do when he has used up the last shred of evidence of the mighty blaze that scarred his city and, Brennan feels, profoundly changed his life?

He has no idea.

“This for me was an event in my life that was very powerful. I don’t know what I’ll do after this, but it’s been a great start.”