Eastern Iowa is Home to an Incredible Etch A Sketch Artist

Tim Gallenbeck is a Marion, Iowa resident with a pretty unique job. Known as the @Bearded_Boarder on social media, Tim is the only professional Etch A Sketch artist in the entire state of Iowa! Tim and his artwork popped up in my newsfeed this week thanks to the Frydae Facebook page. The new restaurant in Uptown Marion commissioned a piece of art from Tim that now hangs on the wall for everyone to see. It's VERY impressive!

According to a July article from CBS 2, Tim may be 42-years-old, but he's still a kid at heart. The self-taught artist told the publication that he bought his first Etch A Sketch for his kids at a thrift store for 99 cents, but when his daughters stopped playing with it, he began to experiment. In another interview with Little Village Mag, Tim said that he learned you could make the images on your Etch A Sketch permanent back in 2017, and the rest is history!

Tim has developed quite the following thanks to his TikTok profile. His Bearded_Boarder account has around 63,000 followers! In addition to videos of his Etch A Sketch creations, he also gives people a behind-the-scenes look at how they're created, how the toy actually works, and the process he uses to make the images permanent. You can check out his full collection of videos HERE.

@bearded_borderInside A Etch A Sketch ##tiktokart ##etchasketch ##fyp ##art ##pants ##themoreyouknow ##whatsinside ##foryoupage♬ Mischievous - Scott Kuehn

@bearded_border
PRESERVATION PART 2 ##tiktokart ##etchasketch ##themoreyouknow ##whatsinside ##fy ##fyp ##art
♬ original sound - bearded_border

If you'd like to check out more of Tim's Etch A Sketch art or commission a piece, you can visit his Instagram account HERE.