EAST COUNTY ARTIST LINDA CHURCHILL RALLIES FROM LOSING HOME AND STUDIO IN BLAZE

By Rebecca Person 

Photos by R. Person and L. Churchill

June 15, 2023 (Jacumba Hot Springs) -- The shell of a rock-walled artist’s studio stands charred and quiet among the arid hills outside a small town in the backcountry of East San Diego County. 

The house that once stood beside it has been leveled into a pile of blackened charcoal - all that is left of the residence local legend Dennis Ruth had once built his parents out of solid wood timbers; the hardwood flooring is black. 

This has been the residence of Ruth’s’ partner, Linda Churchill, since his passing. It’s placed in a harsh boulder-strewn and brush-covered landscape, full of inspiration and vitality, an area that draws outdoors folks, artists, photographers, rockhounds, adventurers.

Churchill, a landscape painter and muralist, was at home the day of the fire.

“I heard a sound and there was  no breeze coming through the window,” she recalls, “and that’s when I went outside and saw the wall of fire…and ran to grab my computer, phone and keys - yelling at Chevron and he wouldn’t come down the stairs.”

She drove to the top of her driveway for cell service and went to a close neighbor who called the fire department. On her return to the house, the fire had jumped to the dormers… and she waited on the road for the fire trucks. 

There was no sign of Chevron, Dennis’ beloved stray, or the cats. 

Linda escaped w/ her life, but the flames burned fast and hot after an initial blast. The cause of the blaze still under investigation.

Her studio and art supplies, recently finished paintings, journals and her portfolio - all the furniture, sketchbooks - a ceiling level bookshelf stacked with decades of collected volumes on design, architecture, all now in ashes.

Two cats survived. A dozen fire trucks were unable to save the structure.

She has no insurance, so the devastation is a total loss. 

“It’s been hard to believe it’s all gone,” Churchill told  ECM, likening the feeling to phantom pain after losing a limb.

But close-knit people come together to help each other at times like this, so artist Churchill has her community of Jacumba Hot Springs’ loving support. 

If you ask her if she plans to leave the area or stay here, she quickly responds, “Stay, of course.” 

She has been in San Diego since 1975, a notable figure in this backcountry sanctuary for artists for almost 30 years. 

At this point, she’s weighing choices for rebuilding and how to reinvent a new life. A tiny home, straw bale house, subterranean home, trailer - these are all options for a creative artist bonded to a rural community where such unique solutions have the elbow room and acceptance to be born.

A Go Fund Me site has been set up, where you can help Linda Churchill rebuild her home and studio.