While the LA fires in January 2025 reduced tens of thousands of homes to ash, they also left around 6,000 burned-out cars rusting in driveways across the city. Most were eventually towed away and recycled as scrap, but stained glass artist Ben Tuna (of Glass Cowboy Studio) saw something worth saving. He rescued some of of the charred vehicles and transformed them into works of art.
Tuna managed to save five wrecked Porsches and began transforming the burned-out shells using salvaged stained glass pieces from old churches. The series, titled Resurrection, reflects on loss and the possibility of new beginnings. “This project grew directly out of the fires that devastated our city just over a year ago,” explains Tuna. “It’s a tribute to resilience, to everyone who keeps going, and to the beauty that can still emerge after profound loss.”
Tuna created each car's stained glass windows using glass from 15 different decommissioned churches. He began by arranging each composition on a tabletop, then carefully soldered the pieces together with lead before fitting the finished panels into the cars’ original window frames. During LA Art Week, each car was displayed and lit from the inside, allowing the stained glass colors and illustrations to glow.
When he’s not working on cars, Tuna is creating stained glass art for residential homes and restaurants. His glass studio was founded by Tuna’s father, Mark Tuna, in 1979 with the goal of keeping the ancient craft of stained glass alive and carving out a place for it in LA’s art scene. Tuna took over the family business in 2021 and has been carrying that legacy forward while developing his own artistic voice.
Tuna shares, “I’ve spent the better part of my 11 year career in stained glass trying to make my dad proud, finding and defining my style in this challenging craft, and sharing it in hopes to give the proper recognition to the people that commit their lives to this art.”
Check out Tuna’s stained glass cars below and find more of the artist’s incredible work by following Glass Cowboy Studio on Instagram.
Stained glass artist Ben Tuna transformed five burned-out Porsches from the LA fires using glass salvaged from decommissioned churches.
The series, titled Resurrection, reflects on loss and the possibility of new beginnings.
Each window panel was carefully soldered together from multiple pieces of glass and custom-made to fit the cars’ original window frames.
Watch the artist at work in his workshop.
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My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Ben Tuna.
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