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By request, pics of our new gravity-defying library, a work in progress. Video of the construction is on the way.


The hole in the floor is where the attic ladder nestles in. It folds down to the ground below so the library can be accessed.

This is just Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Graphic Novels, General Fiction, Mystery, and Young Adult. All the Middle Grade and Picture Books are in Jo's room, and the Non-Fiction shelves will go on the ground floor below the library.

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The grand tour of the new and improved Gratz Industries HQ begins today with . . . my fabulous new kitchen. This is my dream kitchen and it makes me absurdly happy to work in here. Even doing the dishes in here makes me happy!I'm going to put a curtain under the sink side of this counter - but other than that everything will remain open. No doors anywhere! We're going to put an open shelf on each side of the window here too. We have the shelves (yay Ikea!) but haven't had a chance to hang them yet. The end of the faucet pulls out to be a sprayer. It's the little things like that that make me so happy.Here's the "cabinet" on one side of the stove. We looked at TONS of kitchen cabinets and everything was either way too expensive, or just not what we wanted. When we found this heav-duty garage workbench I knew it was perfect - a stainless steel countertop, pegboard on the back, a nice wide shelf above the pegboard, good solid drawers with smooth slides, and more open shelves beneath. Perfect!I love having all my stuff where I can get to it. I thought about going all Julia Child and drawing around each item on the pegboard so I would know exactly what goes where, but decided against it. :-)The first workbench was my cooking station - this one is for baking. It's got all my mixing bowls and baking pans below. . .. . . and all the really fun tools above - like my food processor with a permanent home right there on the counter where I can get to it. La la la la la - that's me singing with happiness while I work. I ran out of pegs so I don't have all my utensils up yet - but I got all my favorites - my beautiful purple colander and Jo's utensils with the funny butts.And here's the island/pantry. It only looks like all we eat are M&Ms and chips - honest! We still need to order a counter top to go over these workbenches - it will be orange to match the one over by the window with the sink in it. And we still need to hang some art and make some finishing touches - but I wanted to show you some of the progress so far and this is the most finished room.
I was hoping for a snow day today so we could finish the dining room, but no such luck. Oh well. . .

Stay tuned for more house pics - and our 500th post coming up very soon. We're planning a great giveaway!

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We've been quiet here at Gratz Industries after a virtual flurry of post-holiday posts--sometimes even two or three a day!--for a few reasons.

First, we could not feel our fingers. The mobile home we're living in until the new house is habitable ran out of fuel oil--again. And just like the last two times--one on a weekend, the other on a holiday--this depletion proved to be horrible timing. We returned home Sunday night from spending a delightful day in the company of friends in Asheville to find the last of our oil gone and the mobile home already down to a chilly 50 degrees. Then the snow began. Lots of snow. And the temperature dropped, both inside and out. It was Wednesday before we could get down the mountain to buy more fuel oil. We had the fireplace in the mobile home, but overnight on the last day, after the fire died, the temperature dropped to 36 degrees. Inside.

But by day, we were toasty and warm. Why? Because our new house was entirely habitable BUT for two piddly, insignificant things: we hadn't drilled a hole for the drier exhaust (even though we haven't moved a drier in yet), AND because one of the switches in the breaker box needed to be an arc fault switch and not a regular breaker switch. (A code thing. It works just fine the way it is now.) That's it. Otherwise, it has working toilets, working faucets, and, most importantly, working heat.

Though our building inspector--regretfully, he admitted--could not give us our certificate of occupancy, he did give us permission to begin moving our things in, which we did with gusto. (Pictures follow.) We also spent every moment we could in the new house, save the shivering evenings before the fire where we ate from our still-functioning mobile home kitchen and slept under piles of blankets. Had we been snowbound one more night, we would no doubt have moved our futon over and slept in the new house, certificate of occupancy be damned. But we managed to remain legal--perhaps more out of perversity than anything--and so we will be able to celebrate even more heartily when the building inspector gives us the final-final go-ahead.

Now the drier hole has been drilled and the vent attached, and the electrician has promised to be out today, around noon, to fix the one problem that remains in the breaker box. After I finish this post, I am calling the building inspector to see if he can come out this afternoon, and perhaps--PERHAPS--we may officially be in tonight. I remain cautiously optimistic. (As I often tell Wendi, with my best Austin Powers voice, "'Caution' is my middle name, baby.")

And so, to the promised pictures!

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There's been a lot happening here at Gratz Industries HQ - we just haven't had a chance to blog about it all. So here's a bit of catching up. . .

We thought we'd be in the new house for the holidays - and then I called the gas company. I thought it would just be a matter of them coming out, plunking down a gas tank next to the house, connecting it to the furnace, and filling it up. But noooooooo. It has to be at least 10 feet from any structure with a buried line to the house, then it has to be inspected, and THEN they come out and fill it up. That bit of info dashed our hopes of being in for the holidays and led to fun new work. Load as much sarcasm as possible into the word fun.

On Saturday Alan and friend Michael Kline dug a couple of trenches - a trench for the power line to Michael's new studio and a trench for our gas line.

The trencher is a pretty scary-looking piece of equipment--

but Alan handled it like a pro--

while Michael removed some of the million chunks of quartz that the monster turned up. Alan told me later that Michael's dirt had NO ROCKS in it. How does that happen? I definitely see raised garden beds in our future.

Look at that beautiful trench! We'll definitely rent this thing again in the spring when we're building our garden. We have lots of critters around so we'll have to bury the lower edge of our fence.

On Sunday we woke up to a cold house and found out we had run out of fuel oil. Oops. We tried to time things so we'd have just enough to keep us warm until we moved into the new house. We missed by a couple of weeks. So Sunday was cut and split firewood day.

Alan did the cutting and splitting. I mostly stood around taking pictures and tossing an occasional log into the wheelbarrow.

Yesterday was a BIG DAY. Carpet in Jo's room!

Yes - it looks like we definitely need to get something to clean the spots off the lens. But they only show up when we photograph things in the new house. What's up with that?

Jo opted for a checkerboard pattern of Flor tiles and we kept her hustling to deliver tiles as Alan and I set them in place.

Things slowed down a bit when we got to the fussy edge work.


Jo kept us entertained by showing us some of the yoga poses she's been doing in school. No pictures suitable for public viewing. I made a mental note that Jo should always wear pants on yoga days.

It was raining and dark so we didn't get to the baseboards, but I think carpeting a bedroom in a couple of hours before dinner is a job well done.

We are so close. . .

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We're almost there! We have a list of things left to do on the house, and it's less than one legal pad page long. And three or four of the things on the list must be done by professional plumbers--who have been called!

This past Sunday and all day today we've worked at the list--mostly odds and ends. Last minute things that didn't get done along the way. And we're almost through! I ran through the house before dusk today taking pics of the things we've marked off the list. Remember too that for each picture of an outlet or switch-plate cover there were dozens more just like it throughout the house!

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Sadly - not the house. Though I did - finally - finish all the painting. That's right folks . . . the painting is finally finished! I really wish we had kept track of how many gallons of paint we went through. Or saved all the empty cans for one impressive photo. Oh well.

So here's a corner of our bedroom. We still haven't decided what to paint on that corner piece so I guess the painting isn't totally done - if you want to get all technical. But this is just fancy finishing so it doesn't really count.
And here's Alan's office. His corner piece will say "write." We're still deciding on the font.Alan's been busy building temporary stair rails. I would dearly love to know how all the fancy homes you see in the decorating and architecture magazines pass inspection. Stairs with no risers are a big no-no (though they look fabulous and are in all the magazines) and if you want horizontal bars on your railing the gaps have to be no more than 4 inches. You know - so your cat doesn't accidentally slip through the side.
I'm convinced that most code requirements are designed to make homes as generic as possible. You should have seen the inspector when I asked about the possibility of not using sheetrock for the ceilings.
Inspector: What do you mean, not use sheetrock?
me: Well, the though of mudding and sanding over my head isn't so appealing, so I was thinking of using something else. Can I use some kind of panel - like homosote - wrapped in fabric and attached to the ceiling in a pattern, like a quilt?
Inspector: ????????????
me: Is that allowed?
Inspector: Well . . . you could use wood.
me: So our options are wood or sheetrock?
Inspector: Yes. (helpfully) You could do your fabric idea over top of the sheetrock. But you'd still have to mud the seams.
me: sigh

Wednesday is supposed to be more gorgeous weather (almost 70 degrees!) so Alan and I are planning some major progress. Updates to follow later this week.

And speaking of updates - here's the little project I did with Jo.
I have no idea when or where (or how) I acquired this pencil box with kissing babies on it. I've been using it as a portable sewing kit and I kind of shudder every time I pull it out.

A quick hit with some sandpaper, a coat of blue paint, and an image cut from a fun (but damaged) Powerpuff Girls book and I have a new and improved sewing kit. Ta daa!Jo is still working on her project. It involves lots of random images and she's not so good at finishing what she starts. Since step one of her project was dumping all of her hair accessories out of their plain white tin onto her bedroom floor, I hope I can get her to wrap it up soon. . .

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So we've been making progress on the house, though we haven't been recording it very well because on days when we paint - we paint from sunup until it's too dark to see. Fun times, I tell you.

This is the corner of my studio ceiling, as seen from Alan's office. The sign that says "make" is an extra support beam that the inspector (whom we have grown to hate) made the builder add after he was done with everything. We thought about ripping it out after we get our Certificate of Occupancy but then we decided to jazz them up a bit and make them a feature. I must say I quite like it. I'm always a fan of words and signs so this makes me very happy. Wait until you see what we (someday) do to our stairs. Big plans. . .

I'm also happy with the paint job to the ceiling. It's been some of the most nightmarish painting I've ever done, but I really like the clean look of the white with gray beams. It shows up the lovely lines of the beams without it being too contrasty and screaming, "Hey! Look at these exposed beams!"

But we're not done - oh no! My studio was the worst, because the ceiling height ranged from about 18 to 25 feet and I really don't like heights anymore. But now we're in the home stretch. Whew! The scaffolding is lower, but the room is bigger. And there has been an Invasion of Ladybugs.

See those little dark clumps in the corners of the beams? Those are ladybugs (actually Asian Lady Beetles if you want to get all technical) and they think they're going to hibernate in our bedroom. This is them in the morning when it was still chilly and they were all calm. I don't want to get into horrible detail here, but my the afternoon there were thousands of them flying through the room I was trying to paint. I had to brush them off each section before I could paint it. They were crawling all over me - in my ears, inside my glasses, down the back of my neck. Alan (under deadline and hard at work) came out to see if I was ok after he heard me screaming things like, "Get the f*** off me you little bastards!" It wasn't quite as bad as the day Alan's foul language echoed throughout our valley (and forever scarred the sheltered homeschooled kids innocently playing in their yard while we worked) but it was close.

At the end of the day I took this picture from the porch off our new master bedroom to remind myself that this will all be worth it when (if) we move in.

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Finally! Something is finished! Jo's tub is officially ready for placement in her bathroom. The sea green exterior was Jo's immediate (and unwavering) request. I suggested the silver feet and she loved them - especially when she saw how shiny they are. The inside still needs a good scrubbing - but for that I'll wait until the drain is attached. Small steps. . .

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So we started work with our new toy - the scissor lift. There are a LOT of warnings and alarming graphics plastered all over this thing. Here are just a few - really - there are a LOT more.






And here I am, working at the full extension of the lift. It has a sickening tendency to sway back and forth, especially when it's fully extended.
Most of the time it was Alan and I together up there, which was a little scary. Actually a lot scary. It was like being in a very tippy boat with another person - both of us overcompensating for every move.

One of the hardest things we did was cover the overhanging eaves. At the full extension of the lift I could just reach the underside of the eaves - if I stood on my tiptoes.


So here's how we put these up. . .

1. Alan squirts some glue on the underside of the roof supports.
2. Alan lifts the siding into place.
3. I stand on my tiptoes to hold the siding in place.
4. Alan hammers one nail in place.
5. I start to whimper because I'm in lousy shape and my calves are now on fire and my hands are going numb. I close my eyes and try to imaging I'm doing yoga - focus on my breathing and work on staying BALANCED. I am so pathetic.
   
6. Alan drives in another nail.
7. I lower my arms and grip a window frame to try to keep our swaying ship steady while Alan drives in the rest of the nails. Did I mention that he's turned around with his back to the wall, arched back over the rail so he can see, driving in nails right over his face? Little bits of crap keep falling in his eyes but the goggles steam up when he has them on so he can't use them.
8. I know it sounds like I'm doing practically nothing. That's mostly true - but besides my death grip on the window frame, I am also on wasp/bee patrol. Oh yeah. Bees. Big, fat, noisy bumblebees. And wasps.
   

I'm not normally a big bug spray user. I found a can under the sink so I must have used it at some point, but usually I'm more of a live and let live kind of person. But not when stinging things are dive-bombing us. I get that they were protecting their nests, but they were building their nests in OUR nest.

Here's where we stand so far - halfway done with the work we have to do this week. Those last few panels in the top corner are actually up now, but it was pitch dark when I finished the painting, so no pictures until tomorrow. And now it's supposed to rain every day for the rest of the week. Lovely.

Jo went up in the lift once but then she decided not to go up any more. Gee, I wonder why? Maybe it was my repeated warnings not to play right next to it? To which she replied, "You mean right where it would fall on me if it tipped over?" Yes Jo - that's exactly what I meant, but I was trying not to terrify you.

So most of the time she collected ladybugs.

This is actually not all we've gotten done so far this week, but I'll save some pictures for tomorrow. . .

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Meet our new scissor lift! Well, it's ours until next Friday. This little guy is going to help us finish the exterior siding AND get a head start on the insulation that goes in the tall, two-story walls and two-story tall ceiling on the first floor. Once Wendi and Jo get back from school, that is. Today is one of our parent-helper days at Spruce Pine Montessori, so of course we have to wait . . .

More pics of scissor-lifting to come!

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Time for some siding derring-do!

With some loaner scaffolding set up, we were ready to start putting up the next two levels of Hardipanel siding. We got a start last Thursday, working our way along the back of the house over toward the third floor porch. The scaffolding we have only gets us to the bottom of the third story, but hey--if we can't work up, we can work down!

Yes, that's Alan hammering siding on between his legs. You won't see that on HGTV.

Nor, probably, will you see this:

That shot's not so dizzying as it felt, but this next shot gives you a better idea how high up it was--

A little more dangerous was using a kitchen step-stool on top of the scaffolding. We had to do this to be able to reach the top of the fourth row of siding.

Just don't tell our parents we were doing this!

Ah yes, and the always safe hammering across your body while standing on a kitchen step-ladder on top of borrowed scaffolding floored with garden timber. Wendi took these pictures so she could explain what happened to the coroner.

Thankfully, the evidence won't be used in any coroner's inquest in the near future. Instead, when everything was said and done, the results were pretty fantastic.




We made it to the end of the fourth row on the south side of the house, but we didn't have it in us to haul that scaffolding around the corner to the front today. It proved to be a wise decision--the rains that chased us from our work on Saturday began just as we were putting our tools away.

Our favorite tool? Easily the mallet, which allows us to, ahem, beat misaligned siding into place. Not that we have to do that often. Really.

That's the end of the house work for the next few days as Wendi hits the road again, but we're moving right along, and hope to get back to it by next weekend, weather permitting!

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In three quick days, the entire house was wired in by the great guys at KC Electrical. They only roughed in the electrics--we're going to go in and add all the sockets, switches, lights, and fans. That's the level of electric work we've done before on previous homes, so we're pretty comfortable with that. Especially since they were so nice to label everything!

And labeled even! This will be a first--actually knowing which breaker to flip when we need to.

Next up--insulation! We've got a guy in town who's giving us a great deal on some old asbestos insulation he's got lying around. Yeah, we know the stuff can kill you, but at these prices we'll take the risk!

(And yes, mom, I'm kidding about the asbestos.)

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After weeks--nay, months--of slow to no progress on our new headquarters, we finally have some action. Some Heatpex action! Heatpex is is a metal-lined plastic tubing that carries hot water through your floors to provide radiant heat. No air ducts, no blower, no sound, and each "zone" or room can be controlled individually. Mwahahaha.

The Heatpex yet to be installed is stored on this gizmotron, which allows the guys to pull more through when they need it. Clever.

The Heatpex was first run all the way down the length of the floor--in this case, the floor of Wendi's craft room--


--and then it was woven back and forth between the joists and covered with this metal covering. The covering holds it to the floor so that the heat radiates right underfoot, and it's metal so it reflects the heat upward. When the installation is finished, we'll then go back and put insulation between the Heatpex and the ceiling below it to further encourage the heat to radiate more up than down.

And lo and behold, the same day the Heatpex installation began, the flooring store finally brought the tile we ordered for Jo's bathroom. It's pretty too.

They ran out before they could finish though, so there are sticky places where little bits of tile should go. This is the one I stepped in without thinking. Watch out, Mr. Rabbit!

With the Heatpex has come warmer weather too, and we here at Gratz Industries are considering taking a week or two of sick leave to put some major effort into the house. And we really are sick--sick of staring at it through the windows of our mobile home. We want to be inside our new home! More images and updates to come . . .

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Wendi and I want to get a goat.

Seriously.

There's a family down the hill from us that has five of them. The goats hang out on this really steep slope, munching on anything that grows there and keeping it "mowed." We're envious, and we have a steep, unkempt slope of our own what amounts to our "back yard."

We do not want to mow this. We don't want to mow anything. We moved away from suburbia to get away from, among other things, a preoccupation with lawn maintenance.

Enter the goat. At least, our plan to get one. We have a few things to get settled first (like, finishing the big house in our front yard we're not living in--more updates on that soon) but we've already broached the topic with my parents. When it comes to things like, "We are moving to the middle of nowhere," "We're painting the outside of our house three different colors," and "We're going to buy a goat," it helps to give my parents plenty of advance warning so they can handle it when we actually do these things.

So my dad, ever helpful person that he is, forwarded me this e-mail ad today:

Never cut the grass again! Buy a goat
Cuts & Fertilizes At the Same Time

Yes, a goat. Not as neat as a lawn mower, but good enough. In one end, out the other. Cuts the grass and feeds the lawn at the same time. Get your own goat today. They do an excellent job of keeping the grass down, although they can be a bit indiscriminate at times.

They are not very good at a light trimming of course, big mouthfuls of grass from the center of the lawn is more their thing, not good at neat edges where the grass and the fence line meet, but in general they do a good job. Some customers hang on to their back legs and hold them up to direct their head. Reasons to buy:

• A good investment no gas required
• Highly reliable too (nothing the local vet won’t sort out)
• Affectionate & lovable animals- Environmentally friendly to boot.
• Free goat droppings for the compost pile.

The ad even had a link:
Click Here for Pricing & Shipping Information

So I clicked. I'll let you click to, so you can see how Dad got my goat. He claims he didn't click through to see that, but given what day it is, I have a hard time believing him.

And trust me, we're still getting a goat.

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My friend, Connie, alerted me to a fantastic art project: the SketchCrawl. In short, it is a world-wide drawing marathon. Visit the website for details, tell your friends, and sharpen your pencils because the next crawl is scheduled for March 29th, one month from today!

The SketchCrawl map above was drawn by Enrico Casarosa, the fella who founded this foolishness.

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There are only ten days left to share your SELF-portraits at The Portrait Party

. I’ve already posted some great ones by Michael Wertz, Danny Gregory, Norman Rockwell, and many more. (But this ugly mug above is mine.)

If you’re anxious to share your portrait SWAPS on the other hand, you only have ten more days to wait.

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Our first non-structural purchase for the new house - a very cool little clawfoot tub for Jo's bathroom. It's mostly in good shape. The inside is just dirty and doesn't need to be re-enameled.
But what kind of maroon stores an iron tub on its side in the grass? Luckily it wasn't out there for long. One whole side is rusted, but it doesn't go too deep.
Here it is flipped upside-down and ready for a good scrubbing with a wire brush.
I was all ready to start hitting it today with the naval jelly - assuming that it would take several tries to get off all the rust, but once I finished with the wire brush I realized that it will probably only take a few applications. I'm not ready to paint it yet, and I'll want to prime and paint as soon as I get the rust off, so we're putting this on hold until we choose flooring for Jo's bathroom and the color for the outside of the tub. I can't wait! And (as Jo would say) I'm not being sarcastic. I really mean it.

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From Derek Powazek (Fray, JPG Magazine) comes a great new community site that aims to bring publishers and artists together in collaboration. People can post assignments and prizes that they’re offering, artists submit their work and the community votes on the best. From the About page at Pixish:

“Pixish is a place where people who want images and people who make images can easily find each other and collaborate on creative projects together.

There’s so much talent online — we want to get your work out there!

The problem we’re trying to solve:

Say you’re a magazine. You have a story that you need an illustration for. Your options are to find an artist for a custom job (time-consuming and expensive) or spend all day trolling microstock sites to find the perfect image (cheap, but just as time-consuming, and very frustrating).

Pixish is a middle path. With Pixish, you can create an Assignment that asks for what you want. Pixish peeps can submit their work and collaboratively vote the best up. All you have to do is pick the winning entry!”

Sounds pretty good, but my artist alarm bells were going off when I thought “Well, isn’t this just spec work?” and Pixish addresses that question:

“We acknowledge that some artists are against working before there’s a contract in place, so they may not want to participate here. And that’s fine - Pixish isn’t for everyone. If you’re already making a living as a pro, hooray! We’re thrilled for you. But you’re lucky. There are a lot of really talented folks who aren’t. We want to give them a chance to get out there, get seen, and get paid.”

Sounds like it could be fun and a great way to make new contacts, as well as earn cool prizes and cash for your work.

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Jo and I woke up yesterday to a world covered with ice - and no power. The ice was beautiful - crystal clear and very thick.
So thick that it weighed down everything in sight. We heard lots of branches snapping all morning, and I got to watch a big branch break off one of our tall white pines - and crush a smaller sapling on the way down to the ground.
Jo especially liked the way all the junk on our deck looked, encased in ice. I thought the chairs were especially pretty. I'm not sure you can see it in the photo below, but the whole underside of this chair is dripping with icicles. Very cool.
So no school and no power. That means no heat, so Jo and I were"trapped" in the very small living room where we could huddle near the fire. We read some books, played some games, drew in our sketchbooks, and nibbled on snacks from the pantry. Jo helped out by giving me a backrub while I struggled to start a fire. (Alan is the fire master.) Jo also drove me insane with her constant chatter. Here's a sample. . .
Jo: "Emma, [that's the cat] you're a fartbutt."
me: nothing
Jo: "Mommy - did you hear that? I called Emma a fartbutt! Ha ha ha! That's so funny! I called Emma a fartbutt! Did you hear that Mommy?"
me: groan

And then, at the end of the day while we snuggled under a blanket in the firelight and watched night fall with no lights or candles on inside, Jo comes out with this. . .
Jo: "Mommy?"
me: "Yes Jo?"
Jo: "I don't think this is really our house."
me: Hmm. I'm thinking that this actually makes sense in a way. This is a mobile home very badly abused by the people who rented it before we bought it. The sellers had to remove (and burn) all the floor coverings and only half of the plumbing works. We haven't unpacked all of our boxes from the move last April. This isn't really our home - it's just the place we live while we build our dream home. But I don't think this is where Jo is going, so I say, "What do you mean Jo?"
Jo: "I think this is actually a clone of our house and we can't tell the difference."
Huh. How can the person who's unbelievably tickled by the word "fartbutt" also ponder cloning and (sort of) alternate realities by firelight? She's a mystery. And I mean that in the best way possible.

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whitney houstin said it best: “learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.”

so, in honor of valentine’s day, the Portrait Party will celebrate the greatest love of all with an entire month of self-portrait parties. draw yourself. share the results. self-portraits will be posted until midnight on february 29th.

(feel free to share your portrait swaps also. i will resume posting them in march.)

our very own, penelope “d-bomb” dullaghan, got us started with the gorgeous self-portrait above.

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kerstin klein (portrayed above by several of her portrait partners) is the winner of the portrait party scavenger hunt. kerstin was the runner-up in the first portrait party contest but, with an actual factual portrait party, she sniped the scavenger hunt from jennifer m. lee. visit the december archive to see what i mean.

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Rate My Drawings is having a Christmas drawing competition. Could be fun! ho ho ho!

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Russ Roca posts a video recap of Davy and Peter Rothbart from FOUND magazine performing at Open in Long Beach.

Not only is it a great video, but - look at all that lovely art on the walls! (A nice way to sample the IF show from the comfort of your computer monitor).

From the FOUND website: “We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids’ homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles - anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else’s life. Anything goes…”

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the first portrait party contest went so well. i’m excited to offer another one.

i will trade portraits with whoever wins the following portrait party scavenger hunt.

contestants must complete a portrait swap with the following subjects:

a parent
a child
a sibling
a significant other
an old friend
a peer
a teacher
a hero
a stranger
an enemy

click HERE for the details.

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Illustration Friday and Open are excited to showcase twenty-five community-chosen artists at the first ever Illustration Friday gallery show!

The show begins November 3rd and runs through January 20th.

Open is located at 2226 E. 4th St. in Long Beach, CA (map).

The IF community created 678 total entries, and if you haven’t taken a look at “open“, then you are missing some of the best work of Illustration Friday yet!

Congratulations, you guys! And many thanks to all the artists who make Illustration Friday such an inspiration week in and week out. See you at the show!

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