Last May, Kerstin, Emily Cobb & I decided to take a drive up PCH and head to El Matador in Malibu. It was a beautiful, sunny, California beach day, we were all funemployed and making the best of what summer we had left. While sitting on the sand, we noticed a strapping young gent with a big back pack writing in a journal.
After a while we decided we'd talk to him & hung out with him on the beach for a while. His name: Ace. We later found out that Ace had been hitchhiking his way across the USA, starting in Austin, Texas with an eventual destination to Seattle. Kerstin, being the spontaneous devil she is, made a perfectly good argument for why we should drive him up to San Francisco. I agreed, and off we went.
Considering this was Ace's first adventure in California, I decided it would be best to take the long route up highway 1 in order to get the best of out the experience. 4 / 5 hours later we arrived at Big Sur, halfway up the coast of California. Somehow, we snuck our way in, or perhaps abused the honesty policy they had going, and found an empty campsite.
We bought a few bottles of wine, set up Ace's tent, made a bed in the back of my car, and to my surprise, also found an Autoharp in my trunk. All of the factors of a wonderful evening. We walked around the campsite, Autoharp and wine bottle in hand, telling stories, getting drunk, and singing songs.
The next day, we woke up bright and early, as to not get in trouble for stealing a campsite for the night, and continued our journey up the pacific coast highway. Ace needed to get to San Francisco, but I knew that I wasn't going to be able to tolerate the traffic, and I had a friend in Santa Cruz that I could surprise & stay for a few nights with. So, we arrived in Santa Cruz, dropped off Ace on the side of the road, never expecting to see him again.
Over a year later (about 2 weeks ago) I get an E-mail from Mr. Ace, informing me he has written & recorded an album about his hitchhiking adventures & needs an artist to do illustration for his new website. ACE? what? but how? What're the chances?
I love connections like this one. I've included the process of making this illustration here, plus the almost almost final painting. Ace also came and stayed with Aaron and I for a night last week and sang us all the songs he recorded. He's awesome, and I'm looking forward to running into him in Texas one day.
Be sure to buy some songs! (I will reap some benefits!)
www.nickelslickmusic.com
My illustration should be up soon.
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