The Oakland arts community is still reeling from the warehouse fire last Friday that took the lives of at least thirty-six people. The city’s arts community is small, and no member of it has been untouched.

The site of the fire, the “Ghost Ship,” was a former warehouse that had been rented out as a studio space but functioned as a joint living-working space for multiple artists. Like so many similar sites, this arrangement was completely off the books. The residents tended to be temporary and transient, filtering in and out over time.

Inside, the Ghost Ship was crammed full of statues, musical instruments, tchotchkes, vintage electronics, bizarre curiosities, and, of course, art supplies. As pictures reveal, it was genuinely beautiful in parts. It was also eternally on the brink of inferno.