{"id":922989,"date":"2026-07-09T10:46:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/922989\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T10:46:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:46:37","slug":"after-suffering-the-loss-of-her-child-a-journalist-turns-to-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/922989\/","title":{"rendered":"After suffering the loss of her child, a journalist turns to art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was after the death of her son, Laith, that Esme Saleh decided to become a folk artist. <\/p>\n

She had always been creative, experimenting with watercolors and learning to sew and embroider at a young age. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had a creative inkling,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I never pursued it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everything changed on Aug. 17, 2013.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a> <\/p>\n

In this series, we highlight independent makers and artists, from glassblowers to fiber artists, who are creating original products in and around Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

When Saleh was nine months pregnant, she woke up with stomach pains and presumed she was in labor. She and her husband, Nasim, immediately went to the hospital, where doctors checked her and put the baby on a heart monitor. Saleh\u2019s blood pressure was high, however, and the baby\u2019s heart rate kept dropping. After about an hour, his heartbeat stopped. Doctors rushed her in for an emergency C-section, but it was too late. Laith did not survive.<\/p>\n

Saleh lost a tremendous amount of blood and developed postpartum HELLP syndrome, a dangerous form of preeclampsia, but doctors were able to stabilize her.<\/p>\n

When she woke up, the first thing she asked was, \u201cHow\u2019s my baby?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Esme <\/p>\n

After losing her son in 2013, Esme Saleh left her job as a television producer. Since then, she has sold her hand-painted candles to local designers in Los Angeles and to LVMH in Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cAug. 17, 2013, was the most difficult day of my life, and Aug. 22 was the second most difficult, the day we drove home with an empty car seat,\u201d she said of her and her husband\u2019s new reality. <\/p>\n

They named their son Laith Finn Saleh. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis first name means \u2018lion\u2019 in Arabic. His middle name is an ode to Huckleberry Finn \u2014 sharp wit, kind heart, strong moral compass \u2014 all the attributes he\u2019s imparted on us in spirit,\u201d said Saleh, 45.<\/p>\n

After such a devastating loss, she found it difficult to trust the world again. \u201cIt was hard to trust anything,\u201d she said. \u201cThe medical system. Myself. It made me realize the fragility of bringing anything to life. We take so much for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

So after years of working as a television producer, Saleh left broadcast journalism and leaned into her creative spirit. <\/p>\n

She grew up in San Diego. Her mother was raised on a farm in Mexico, and her father moved from Tijuana to Los Angeles to be near her mother, who started working for a family in Sherman Oaks at 16. They eventually settled in San Diego, where Saleh\u2019s father, now a church deacon, worked as a car salesman.<\/p>\n

\"TORRANCE, \"TORRANCE, \"Esme <\/p>\n

\u201cThe word Mystic has also become a driving force of what this journey means to me,\u201d Saleh says. \u201cA magical, otherworldly journey that has led me to some beautiful friendships, projects and unlimited well of curiosity. When I paint each pair of candles, it feels like I\u2019m imparting a piece of that magic.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHe always wanted to be a weatherman on TV,\u201d she said, explaining how he hoped to get his big break on television by doing a weather report from the car lot.<\/p>\n

Saleh wanted to be a broadcast journalist as her father had. After graduating from San Diego State, she interned in the sports department at CBS affiliate KFMB-TV although she didn\u2019t know much about sports. She enjoyed sharing information with people, learned how to write plays of the week and felt she had found the right career.<\/p>\n

But during a summer class at Mesa College, she started to think journalism might not be for her.<\/p>\n

\"Paintings \"Candles <\/p>\n

Saleh\u2019s home is filled with her artwork. \u201cMy home expresses a lot of the things that I do,\u201d she says. \u201cIf it works here, then I feel like I can put it out in the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an empath \u2014 a sensitive soul \u2014 so when I was reading news about death and destruction, my eyes could not lie,\u201d she said. Her professor told her, \u201cThis may not be your thing.\u201d But when she arranged flowers on camera, she really came alive. She decided to work behind the scenes as a producer. <\/p>\n

Her professor helped her get her first network news job in 2003, and she moved to Los Angeles, working on hard news and entertainment coverage.<\/p>\n

After losing Laith a decade later, she couldn\u2019t keep doing red-carpet interviews and acting like everything was fine. \u201cIt all felt so different, superficial and hard,\u201d she said. \u201cI felt like there was a bigger purpose out there for me. It\u2019s in the small things that we find the big things.\u201d<\/p>\n

She started by painting folk art-inspired invitations for a friend\u2019s baby shower. She painted delicate flowers, oranges and leaves on glass, leather and even lampshades. She created a logo. \u201cI was just trying to say yes to things that were really scary,\u201d she said. \u201cLaith gave me the courage to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Esme <\/p>\n

\u201cI was just trying to get out of hole,\u201d Saleh says of taking up painting after her son died. <\/p>\n

Her first son, she said, became \u201ca catalyst for painting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, at the first Thanksgiving during the COVID-19 pandemic when people could gather again, she had a light-bulb moment. \u201cI was setting the table and didn\u2019t have flowers or anything to add to decorate, so I thought, \u2018I have these candles. I\u2019m going to paint them and make them fancy,\u2019 \u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Her guests were impressed.<\/p>\n

As time went on, painting taper candles helped her find joy again, and others noticed too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing I hear when people pick up a pair of my candles is, \u2018This makes me so happy. It makes me feel like there\u2019s life here,\u2019 \u201d she said. <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Leather <\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

\"floral <\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Saleh sometimes leads painting workshops where participants can decorate items like ornaments and lampshades.
2.<\/strong> Leather napkin rings Saleh has painted for Nathan Turner. 3.<\/strong> Saleh\u2019s hand-painted candles retail for approximately $42 to $50. <\/p>\n

One of the hardest parts of losing a child \u201cis that you\u2019re not just grieving the person, you\u2019re grieving the future you imagined with them,\u201d said Los Angeles-based grief specialist Carla Harvey<\/a>. \u201cA lifetime of love suddenly has nowhere to go. Creating art doesn\u2019t erase grief, but it can become a way to carry it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Saleh created her brand Mystic by Esme<\/a> in 2021, but it took her some time before she could gather the courage to try to sell them. <\/p>\n

When she brought a shoebox full of samples to Nickey Kehoe<\/a>, the L.A. store agreed to carry her candles. \u201cI was beside myself,\u201d Saleh said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHer candles were absolutely beautiful, and she had a fantastic spirit that made selling them a no-brainer,\u201d said interior designer Todd Nickey, co-founder of Nickey Kehoe.<\/p>\n

\"Saleh <\/p>\n

Saleh gets a surprise kiss from her dog Olive while painting candles at her dining room table. <\/p>\n

Saleh viewed her new side project as a way to earn extra money for piano lessons for her 11-year-old son Linus, who is an entrepreneur<\/a> like his mother. \u201cI felt proud painting the candles while he was in lessons in the next room,\u201d she said. \u201cIt became this circular economy, and it led to bigger opportunities for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, luxury conglomerate LVMH commissioned Saleh to paint 465 pairs of candles, or 930 candles in total, for its Chaumet jewelry brand. The collection was unveiled at an elaborate event<\/a> at the Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay, just outside Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun,\u201d Saleh said about the process, which took six months from conception to delivery. \u201cI felt like I was dressing my candles up for a party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Always a hard worker, which she attributes to being a first-generation child of immigrant parents, Saleh has now created a candle collection for Pierce and Ward<\/a> in Los Feliz, leather napkin holders for interior designer Nathan Turner<\/a> and pomegranate wrapping paper for Olive Ateliers<\/a>. The candles retail between $42 to $50 for a pair, and recently, she developed a handsome pewter candle shaver that will be released in the winter.<\/p>\n

\"Saleh <\/p>\n

Her dining room can sometimes feel like \u201can assembly line,\u201d Saleh says. <\/p>\n

\"Esme <\/p>\n

Saleh holds a pair of candles she has embellished with florals.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, she leads painting workshops, and she loves helping others tap into their creativity. The most meaningful one for her was an ornament workshop attended by several victims of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. \u201cWithout saying anything, we understood each other,\u201d she said. \u201cI understood that they were trying to create memories.\u201d <\/p>\n

Saleh knows what it means for things not to last \u2014 \u201cimpermanence,\u201d she calls it \u2014 whether it is homes, candles or life itself.<\/p>\n

She paints every day in the art-filled dining room of her home (unless it\u2019s Little League season), surrounded by her family, candles and her two dogs, Lennon and Olive. \u201dPainting is like meditation,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can sit in your dining room and tune everything out and just be in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Even the family\u2019s summer bucket list receives an artistic flourish.<\/p>\n

\"White <\/p>\n

An arch inside Saleh\u2019s home receives a personalized touch. <\/p>\n

She knows painting candles isn\u2019t new, but she believes her motivation and the care she puts into each candle makes them special beyond their looks. <\/p>\n

She has learned to look at the world that way, that painting in her dining room has offered her healing and joy, that she can trust herself and her body, that continuing to be inspired by her two boys \u2014 \u201cone in spirit and the other here on Earth\u201d \u2014 means that Laith will always be with her.<\/p>\n

Many people think healing means moving on, said grief specialist Harvey, but \u201cit\u2019s really about finding ways to move forward while keeping the people we love woven into our lives. That\u2019s what I see in her candles, not an ending, but an ongoing relationship with her son.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like my son is channeling through this medium,\u201d Saleh said, her voice breaking as she painted a taper. \u201cHe\u2019s whispering to me, \u2018Mom, this is your path.\u2019 That has been my driving force. We\u2019re going to grow this together.\u201d<\/p>\n