It's an Art Trading Card Exchange at I've Been Framed

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Something I tucked toward the end of the post, two back, about IBF and our new M'Reptunian friend is something that deserves to be broken out on it's ownsome, so here I go with that.

Artist Trading Cards are a delightful thing, and in this era of existential dread about AI ruining art for artists who want to make their livings in it and just make it a commodity, ATCs are just the tonic we need to remind us that art is a personal thing and a human thing and can still not only be an industry but also a personally liberating thing.

There is literally nothing wrong with ATCs. They're small, 2.5 by 3.5 inch (64 mm by 89 mm), the same size as a sports trading card. You put some art on it, your own stuff, simple or complex, whatever moved you. You meet other artists. You trade cards.

Seriously, that's all there is to it. Simple, honest, elevated, personal. Democratic? You bet. Literally anyone who likes to art can do this; they can't keep you out.

They've been around for a bit. They were started in 1997 by a Swiss artist, name of M. Vänçi Stirnemann, at his second-hand book shop in Zuerich. They've been a presence ever since, a low-stakes way of doing and sharing art with a highly emotional payoff. Better info you can find at the Wikipedia page. 

Here's how you can get in on the conspiracy (they aren't all sinister and evil) and have some fun too:

In June, I've Been Framed Art Supply Center is staging a gallery show. If you get an ATC to them before the 15th of May, you'll be included in the ATC swap after that show. Basic details are available in this photo I've inserted above, or, hey, how about going to IBF at 4950 SE Foster Road some time and ask them about it? They'll tell you all you need to know and send you off with an ATC blank to do your bit on, and you return it to them. No money required, they just do this because IBF is a revolutionary place that way (small quiet revolutions are just as important as the big noisy ones). Pick up a pencil or a brush or a little paint while you're at it, you're on the way.

And you're doing it just the way the founder did, back in Zuerich in '97. 

There is literally no reason not to do this, all else being equal. 

The M'Reptunians Walk Amongst Us, And Other Things At I've Been Framed On Foster

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This is why I've Been Framed is a place one cannot do without. Not only it it just a great place with revolutionary artistic energy, but you meet extraterrestrials.

The extraterrestrial was in her full camouflage as a terribly charming 7-year old young woman possessed of a firey, fierce creativity. I will explain.

We wanted to stop by this. our favorite art place and the best one in the world, because Spouse was looking for pink fluff for cat toys. Our youngest feline, Tabitha, loves fluff toys, but she's very particular. They must be a specific shade of pink. And she's annihilated the ones we had for her and finding that pink, which seemed quite common, is proving unexpectedly, uncommonly difficult to do. 

Prairie thought she might be of help, so off we went. 

Once we were there, I wandered about looking at art supplies while Spouse's attentions were more directed. Chatted with Prairie, which is always a pleasure. She showed me a bottle of linseed oil which is part of her extensive collection of vintage art supplies. I should have gotten a picture of this ... it had to be from the 1940s or so, it had the label of a downtown Portland pharmacy that had a phone number that a named exchange (CEdar, I think it was). And the vintage bottle was gorgeous and the contents still looked okay, though I think one has to go beyond mere looks when it comes to eighty-year-old linseed oil.

It was at that point I crossed paths with the young lady from M'Reptune. She was engaged in animated extemporaneous discourse with Prairie, who had moved down to that end of the room by then. This small brown-haired force of nature was there with an older woman we'll presume for the moment was posing as this incredible being's mother; their down jackets - properly pillowy in PNW construction - had identcal colors. And she had so much to tell us about her treks and travels. 

At first it was not revealed that she was extraterrestrial; her first representation was that she was technically a cat. She then demonstrated moves that suspiciously echoed the chaotic interaction our cat Ralph had with the belt on the fuzzy pink robe we kept on the bed for the itty bitty kitty committed to make biscuits on, so her claim actually has come credence.

She then clued us in on the M'Reptunian connection after that, while letting us know enroute that she was technically also a squirrel. 

It was impossible not to be entertained by her banter, and I'm not kidding, it was non-stop, on fire but unconsumed. Tiny TED talks about the amazing culture and technology of M'Reptune reeled out of this young woman's imagination at a rate of knots, tales of her hyperspatial travel (it takes her two milliseconds to go from here to M'Reptune, for what that's worth) and I just bathed in this tiny delightful sun of instant creativity. So much unafraid, unabashed exposition, such joy in telling us of her worldbuilding, I couldn't help but smile and just listen. 

There is a quote variously attributed to Beaudelair and Rimbaud, that goes "Genius is the recovery of childhood at will". I've always had the rational grasp of that, but here, displayed in front of me, unfiltered and unabashed, was that childhood that those of us who strive for creativity seek to capture. Most all of us had periods in our childhoods where we had these daft kid-ideas that we played with, created stories with, made drawings and paintings. I've for years, in the way of Proust, tried to get it back. Now that I've seen it up close with someone who couldn't help but share it, maybe it'll be a little easier to find.

As for our alien interlocutor, she left the shop about the time me and Spouse did, but as she left she gave me a gift, asked me if I wanted of her technology, and into my hand she dropped a M'Reptunian ray gun. 

It's mine now, this M'Rretunian ray gun, given freely, and nobody can take it away. 

It's unlikely, but I hope I remain the world long enough to see what direction she takes that fabulous ball of happiness in. They might stop by IBF again, who knows?

That drove back some shadows on my brow, and I tell you no lies there.

For me, what did I get? Feast your eyes.

It's a vintage Grumbacher Gainsborough oil paint box. When originally sold it carried 24 tubes of Grumbacher Gainsborough oil paint in the two middle compartments, painting accessories in the long compartments left and right, and brushes across the bottom, at least I think that's the way it works. And it'll carry some art accoutrements for me, I just have to figure out which ones and why. 

Also! I've Been Framed Art Supply Center is holding a showing in June and an Artist Trading Card swap at the end of it. Anyone not familiar what ATCs are and why they're nifty, well, Google that stuff, or even better, stop in IBF's Art Supply Center at Foster and Powell and ask 'em about it. They'll fork over a single blank ATC media - either smooth or textured, a little 2.5" x 3.5" card and you go wild and drop it by and at the end of the showing we all swap 

ATCs are a fun, low-stakes way of dipping a toe into the grassroots art world. All sorts of media happen, acrylic, mixed media, oils, watercolors, and the lot, but I personally find it's a great pairing for drawing and cartooning. However, it's all great fun and the trading cards one gets out it are decidedly delightful and the very definition of unique.

IBF's Art Supply Center is located where it always has been, 4950 SE Foster Road, here in Portland. It's a one-of-a-kind place, Prairie is our hero, and anyone reading this owes it to themselves to stop by.

A Riot of Color

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One side of the watercolors aisle at I've Been Framed on SE Foster. It is a place that just makes me feel good.

Where Do You Get The Perfect Thingy?

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Why, at I've Been Framed Art Supply Center, which is perfect in every damned way, of course. This is what it looks like:

What it is is a 3-D Printed watercolor pan insert for your retired Altoids tin. Retired Altoids tins very readily lend themselves to pocked art boxes and urban sketchery, and this makes it all dead-simple.

If you had something that you thought was a perfect thingy, well, I'm sorry, you're wrong, forget arguing with me, choose some other hill to die on, this is the perfect thingy and it's from IBF, so your argument is invalid. 

The Persistence of Memory, The Home Game

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Who said Dali was just imagining it?

This was on one of the shelves at I've Been Framed-Art Supply Center, and it didn't have a price tag on it, but I imagine it was for sale. We just don't have a place in the house to display it, not really, but if I go back and it's still there, I just might figure out a place.

Bike City Art Store

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I'm betting your art supply store isn't as au courant as mine.

Looking out onto SE Foster Rd from the watercolor section of IBF, three days ago.

Don't you wish your art supply store was hot like mine? 

Still Life With FATE

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Another pic from the inside of I've Been Framed, this from the top of what was once the sole display case from the vintage art-supply "Museum":

I call it Still Life With FATE.

This number of the legendary pulp icon was curated with wit and cleverness. Of course, some of us know what they mean by this: synesthesia. Sometimes we joke about trying to smell the number 7, but this is a reality to a synesthete, who, due to a sort of neurological cross-talk, get real physical sensations delivered with their perceptions of visual input. Some people say they can taste words, for instance, and I've read many accounts of people who feel sensations and textures associated with colors. Some see sounds as colors.

I fancy I have a mild tendency for this: various colors bring textures to mind. I've never been tested, and it's entirely possible that it's my over-active imagination at work as the sensations I think I experience are little better than wispy hints. But it's a fun thing to think and it just may keep me a little connected to my art, who knows.

 

Just The Ends Of Watercolor Pencils

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I didn't get this in whole because I was distracted by else the last time we did IBF, but I did this time. 

This is simply just the end of the stock of inexpensive watercolor pencils. Rather entrancing.

That's it. That's all.

A Quick Look At The Craft Wave Aqua Fan

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This is a great design for a portable watercolor set.

Today I decided I was worthy of an art supply treat, and I've seen this on offer for quite a while. Figured it was time to take one home. This is the Aqua Fan, by Craft Wave, and it looks like this:

The whole thing, collapsed, measures just eight inches by two, and is a little less than two inches thick; this does not count the clip on the side that holds the accompanying water-brush. This is a little deck built to travel, and looks as though it would be good for quick watercolor sketches at the drop of a hat. This would be a good kit for urban sketchers, for example.

The colors, which are identified by number, are highly-compacted cakes in shallow plastic 'pans', arranged in leaves: The top one has 3 colors, 4 in the second, 5 in the third, 6 in the fourth, 7 in the fifth, 8 in the sixth, and 9 in the seventh, for a total of 42 colors in all. A small rectangular mixing area is in the top of the case. 

The price of this kit was about $40. There was also an 18-color assortment for about half as much. As far as quality, I've not wetted the colors yet so I do not know, but they seem quite vibrant in the dry state and they seem pretty finished to the touch. I expect workable paints, perhaps about the quality of Cotman but just a little less than that, but much higher than, say, a set of Prang school-kid colors. Perfectly suited to painting on-the-go. 

But, really, it's the cool design that packs a whole lot of paint into a tiny little case that sold me. Most impressive

I've Been Framed Rescues My Kaweco Fountain Pen

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I'm terribly fond of my pens. I hate it when they get lost and love it when they get found and today, I've Been Framed's Art Supply Center helped me get it back.

Last week I went to the refreshed IBF-ASC to get some pictures and document the transition. Well, a few days after that, I went to do a diary entry and wanted to use my beloved Kaweco Perkeo, and it was nowhere to be found where it should have been found.

The Brown Eyed Girl swung into action and started making phone calls while I was at work to the likely places ... the library ... Cruiser's Cafe ... and IBF. We found out that Prairie had recovered it, and therein the tale:

A shopper had found it next to the oil colors and, taking an shine to it (and how could not you not?) brought it to the counter and asked the price. Prairie didn't recognize it as part of the stock and said she'd be willing to sell it, but would have to hang on to it as lost and found and if it wasn't claimed, she'd sell it then. Subsequently, the BEG called IBF and Prairie, recognizing the number, called us back. 

They had it. And, today, we went and got it:

They included a sticker because they are just that nifty about things like this. 

The pen itself you'll see in the photo above. It's a Kaweco Perkeo, an entry-level model meant just so students and anyone who just wants to pick up a fountain pen can do so. The resin bodies and caps come in a number of colors and are sold matched up or in combinations: the model I have's color scheme is called "old Chambray". 

And it's back home, thanks to IBF, and as long as there's an IBF, the world isn't entirely a lost cause.

The Pencil You Need When You Don't Need To Make A Point

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There's a whole sheaf of these, they really exist (my 'shopping skills were never even close to that apt), and they may still be at I've Been Framed, if one is so inclined to try and get them.

The beauty of a pencil with an eraser on each end is that you're not only not likely to make a mistake with one but since you aren't, those erasers are going to last a very, very, very long time.

The Colors of I've Been Framed, or: Roy G. Biv is a Friend of Mine

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I've babbled about this before, but only a fraction of the pleasure of going to an art supply store, especially IBF, is just looking at all the pretty art supplies, and by pretty I mean all the colors.

All the colors.

I'm not sure which is prettier, that spectrum of the ends of the Caran d'Ache watercolor pencils with all its order and nuance, or that spangly, speckly, adorably random chaos of the pencil 'lead' ends in the box immediately left of that.

You know, of course, you don't have to choose. You can say yes to both.

These encaustic color sticks are vibrant, but still muted somehow. 

Encaustic painting, in case you didn't know, is painting with pigmented wax. Those sticks seen there are small blocks of exceptionally high-quality wax with the pigment within. It's an interesting mode, but not one that's particularly for me ... but the colors? Wouldn't miss that for the world.

Roy G. Biv? Yeah. He's a friend of mine.

The Museum Of Vintage Art Supplies, At I've Been Framed

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In the last episode I gave you, the dear reader, a quick look around the legendary I've Been Framed Art Supply Center. This and the next one (or maybe two) I'll take a look at some of the details. 

Today: The Museum. 

In the IBF-that-was, there's a glass-sided cabinet with an off-white metal frame which is labelled "The Museum" (in fairly skillful sign-paniters' hand which careless fingers have now gone a long way toward scraping off (you know we can't ever have nice things in this timeline)). The IBF-Art Supply Center that is still has it, and more besides now. The new service counter has four shelves, long and deep, behind glass and with lights that flicker into being when you approach, and the collection of vintage art supplies is nothing short of gorgeous.

I made these a little larger so when embiggened, some detail can be seen. I hope.

I guarantee you, if you had an art class in any school, primary, secondary, or collegiate level, any time in the USA during the last, oh, I'd say 60 years, you'll see either something you used, or something very similar to something you used.

Art supplies bind us together as a people, truly. 

And, as I said, the OG Museum still stands, and, if my dead reckoning skills are as sharp as I think they are, it's in more or less the same place it was before. 

At Last, A Look Inside I've Been Framed

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This post is a looong time in coming; one pandemic wait plus one visit forgetting the camera.

I have never made any secret of my love for I've Been Framed, the Portland treasure of an art supply store that we visit on a semi-regular basis at 4950 SE Foster Road. We first went there in 2002, where I found a complete set of DaVinci gouache colors that I needed for an art course I was taking at PCC.

It's been a very satisfying relationship, which has become more than just a place we drop in on to get art supplies. We've taken to them and we fancy they've taken to us; they put up with our quirks as customers and we hit that place first when we're looking for something. They have been very good to us and we feel like they're more than a business we stop at but they're kind of our friends.

20 years a patron will do that for you, if you manage it right. 

The business was started by a fellow named Bob Brisack in 1955, powered by his love of wheeling and dealing art supplies. In about 2001 we went in there and I bought my first purchase, a proportional divider for drafting, which I still have. In 2003, the place was sold to his son, Mark. Mark was cool and a very welcoming person who was always very encouraging. Mark also saw the store through the tough beginning of the pandemic.

This last year, Mark retired in his turn, and the store was bought by Prairie Clark, who was running the store under Mark for a long time (at least as I understand it), and she's seeing the store through the pandemic (keeping it open and everyone employed and innovating a way to sell art supplies despite not being able to allow people in for browsing) and into its next era.

That era, having arrived, gives us a evolved IBF on Foster. In-store browsing is now fully enabled (to an occupancy level of 10 at a go) and there's been a retro-rebranding. It's all quite exciting.

In the below photo, which is taken from a spot roughly where the framing department was, the changes should be manifest.

There's more room to move about, better airflow, and rearranged departments. The counter that can be seen above describes an L-shape in the floorplan, behind which canvases and paper can be requested - you can't go back into the paper aisles any more but they'll get you whatever you want from them - and the collection of vintage art supplies, once limited to the glass cabinet marked as THE MUSEUM, has been greatly expanded.

Along the front windows there can be seen, from the right, the water color aisle, then the brushes, then the acrylic colors. Screenprinting inks are just out of frame on the left, and the oil colors have moved into the space once occupied by the childrens' art supplies.

Turning about, the store looks like this now:

There's modelling supplies immediately to our right; out of sight and to the right of the colored Canson paper rack there is the graphite drawing stock, which is actually more or less where it was before the floorplan revision. The generous space allowing for some social distancing is obvious here and the design of that is quite impressive.

The biggest change, outside of the new counter spanning the middle of the store, is the absence of the custom framing department. IBF still offers framing, by appointment, and the framing crew, I understand, has now fully relocated to the other IBF location, 2819 SE Ash St over in Laurelhurst.

This brings me to the real delightful detail of all this. I regard Prairie as a marketing genius for this, but she's done a bit of a throwback for branding this location.

I overheard Rosie, one of the retailers, answer the phone I've Been Framed, Art Supply Center. It clicked with me then. When Bob Brisack opened IBF its original name was simply that: Art Supply Center. IBF has two branches at present, and the functions have been sorted out between them so that now the Foster Road location has just art supplies. Why not reach back and reclaim some of that history? What a clever and delightful idea, in my blunt opinion.

So, welcome on I've Been Framed's Art Supply Center, which is an art store as Portland as it gets.

I have a few more pictures to share and will, in a subsequent post anon (but not too far anon). In the mean time, go get you some art supplies.

I just told you where to do it.

A Couple Of Other Things I Love About I've Been Framed

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... and they are that ladykin and that window sign.

The ladykin has haunted the front part of the store for nearly a decade I think, and I first met that delightful window sign in about 2012. Mark told me a little story about it, that it was painted by another IBF fan based on a Banksy work. I just like the wittiness of it, the way it reminds me of a magazine cover, and the sassy little thanks a lot! in the lower left corner.

The back wall, I recognize; it's left of entrance as you come in ... well, when you could come in, pre-pandemic. I understand Prairie and the staff are re-thinking the store layout to make it more traffic-friendly; the idea, if I understand it correctly, is to make it so people can browse and also put some of that social-distancing logic in.

Since everything is opening up I was hoping to hear the same sort of thing coming out of my beloved IBF, but there's been nothing ... yet. And I support this, because Prairie knows best. 

The picture, for what it's worth, was taken sometime in 2017. So near in the past yet so very far away.

A Reminder From I've Been Framed

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The best art supply store there ever was, I've Been Framed, 4950 SE Foster Road, if they don't have it, son, you don't need it, is still going hard and fast and strong, just like great art supply stores should.

We've patronized them throughout the pandemic still, and though the browse is nourishment for my psyche (and it has consequently sorely missed this) the same great people are there, and Prairie, the manager, is still rocking it hard (you want a business icon? Forget Musk and Bezos, it's Prairie you should idolize). I hear word that they're working out how they might make the browse happen, but I don't know for sure. Maybe I'm just yearning.

But you want art supplies? Here's your dealer. Check this window out.

Stay revolutionary, my friends.

Help Wanted, Artist-Style

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Do you like painting? 

Do you like painting houses?

Aphrodite Painting might like to talk with you. This appeal I found stapled to the post outside of the mighty I've Been Framed, on Foster Road. The photo should be big enough for you, my interlocutor, to embiggen and read.

 

The author invites you to use your obsessive skills with paint and brush (if you have them) to help them ply their trade. And by appealing outside the most bohemian art supply store the world has ever seen, they should catch a few. 

I appreciate the creativity, anyway.

27 April 2020: The Day In Errands

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A short summary of our commerical adventures on this, day eight million two hundred thirty-five thousand six hundred and thirty-one of the Covidinium.

I've Been Framed: The Brown-eyed Girl bought a bag of small bottles (by 'small' I

mean about the size of a finger between two knuckles). Prairie and Mark were their usual indomitable selves. The world is richer because of them.

Again, you can buy from IBF if you needs you your art supplies and need to support local. There is now a process and instructions on how you can purchase remotely and pickup curb side. Go to ivebeenframedpdx.com and follow the directions under the Curbside Pickup link.

Backstory Books and Yarn: The Girl has wanted a copy of an excellent little book by Beth Terry called Plastic Free and Amanda was able to find this for her. Also she found for us a very very very old compilation of Godey's Ladies Book, a periodical of the early 1860s. It's impossible to find out when that was published in this format, but it's an antiquarian delight, some pages hand-colored, and just the sort of thing the Girl loves. It's so old, all the old-book smell's gone out of it, which I found odd.

As with IBF, Backstory is social-distancing-enabled for your bookshop needs. BackstoryBooksAndYarn.com, follow the Browse link for full instructions and pictures of the shelves with everything available.

Dutch Bros. If there was a candidate for state drive-up coffee place in Oregon, this ought to be it. Dutch Bros. has always been excellent. We got our weekly treat at the 136th and Division place and drove into town for our two other things and and the coffee I had gotten spilled out all over the place. We proceeded to the 67th and Foster location (which was, of course, located just down the street from IBF) and when the Girl told them why we were there and the runner offered to give us the replacement for free, and the Girl said no, we were there to support business with our money, and we got to the serving window only to have them refund our money anyway and we went our of there with a free replacement coffee because that's how excellent Dutch Bros. is.

My wife refused to take no for an answer; DB refused to take yes for an answer. Win-win situation, all around.

There's commerce out there to be found, and a bit of happiness. Portland's closed, but not completely, and certainly not tight.

I've Been Framed From 2017

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I haven't been in IBF for far too long, so, let's visit it in the mind which, in this case, is the next best thing to being there.

This is from 2017. For a while, near the front door, there was a full-size, and by that I mean you can stand up straight and look it in the face, ladykin.

There was a naming contest when they acquired it, and the prize was one of those cool Golden Acrylics coffee mugs with a printed label like it was a tube of acrylic paint. I reached into my storehouse of art and science fiction ideas and came up with Mona Lisa Undercoat. 

I did not win. I still want that coffee mug. Anyway.

This was the scene near the register just about exactly three years ago; April 2017. The ladykin was dressed flamboyantly and there was this bit of signage that I've always enjoyed that was created by another long-time patron and given to the shop. It hung in the front window for a while. Now, I think it hangs in the back area somewhere.

I love the visual joke here. Mark told me, I think, it was based on a Banksy, I don't remember. There's something about the way the picture is kind of a visual version of a very clever pun, the kind that doesn't make you groan (don't, you guys! They're out there! I've seen 'em!). The little script thanks a lot! in the lower right corner nails the droll counterpoint. I do love this picture.

Thus concludes this visit-of-the-mind to IBF.

I've Been Framed Will Meet You At The Curb To Sell You Art Supplies

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Is the pandemic killing you inside because you can't browse I've Been Framed? Or you can't browse your favorite art supply store, which should be I've Been Framed?

Well, IBF has news for you. They are evolving a way you can order your art supplies on line and you can drive over and they'll bring them to the curb for you. Nothing beats the experience of visiting IBF but you can patronize them this way, and help keep them in business, and get your art supplies from really, really cool people.

All you have to do is go the blog post here (https://www.ivebeenframedpdx.com/blog/update-still-not-opened-but-online-ordering-curbside-pickups-available-now-to-help-you-still-make-art) and follow the link that says "Curbside Pickup". This will take you to a form that you can fill in with what you want, they'll contact you and square it all up, you pay them, then you go and pick it up.

Do this and there'll be an IBF for us to visit after the pandemic clears up.

Good good I miss browsing that place. Patronize IBF!

Direct link to the curbside pickup form? Here is it at https://www.ivebeenframedpdx.com/curbside-pickup.html