Peoria woman’s art auctioned off to help victims of Maui wildfires

PEORIA, Ariz. - This is Sea Breeze, an acrylic painting created on Maui by a truly Maui artist. It's a prized possession now being given new life for the sake of charity.

"The colors in there, they're fantastic," said Sheila Bergren of R&R Auction in Peoria.

Bergren said the owner of the piece knew the artist, Elan Vital, when she bought it from him in Lahaina years ago. When the wildfires destroyed a place she loved, she was devastated.

"She just said it was so dear to her heart," Bergren said. "This piece, she said, she was really devastated when she found out it happened.

Sheila Bergren

Now, it's being auctioned off and whatever is made for the piece, appraised at $17,000, will go to the victims of the wildfires.

"Your heart goes out of your chest," Vital said.

Maui is where Vital sold his first work decades ago under the famous banyan tree.

"I first had my card table out beginning my career in art," he said. "That was tantamount to my beginning."

Vital was heartbroken by what was lost to the fire, and he is donating half of his art sales for the next six months to charity. He's then using the next six months to build a memorial sculpture for the island - a Phoenix rising from Maui's volcano.