The Burning Gates

This website is a tribute to a close-knit community of passionate artists that would meet at The Island, a chat room with an attached multi-user painting board. The tools were primitive, but they allowed for uninhibited group creativity and collaboration. We used them to make many wonderful, unexpected things together… among them, friendships that will last a lifetime.

Below is a small sample of the amazing works that were produced at The Island and in oekaki paint software across ten years of the site's active existence (2000-2010). The Island is no more, and hasn't been for several years now, but it lives on in the artwork we showcase here, and its spirit is infused in the new artwork made by artists who honed their skills here long ago.

We would like to thank everyone who helped make this community great. If you once came here, once lived here with us, we hope The Island has been a source of fond memories and will always have a special place in your heart, as it does in ours.