Excitement Delivered

Ok, ok, ok. So how do I put this? HOLY CRAP! Yeah, that'll work.

I LOVE how the Universe works. Last night went really well, very cool. Here's the story.

My wife and I get a kick out of watching Rob Dyrdek on MTV, both his old show with Big Black and now in his Fantasy Factory. The face Rob makes when that mini horse whinnies in the back of his SUV is hilarious.

Anyway, we noticed that Rob had quite a bit of art hanging in his apartment and his office. Luke Chueh pieces and lots of painted skate decks. I thought it'd be really cool to be able to give one of my pieces to him someday. Someday.

Skip ahead to a coupla months ago when I randomly left a comment on a local guy's blog about a new restaurant around the corner. That guy is making a name for himself as a connector. He loves the Kings Of Leon, whom I had just painted, and he wanted to see my studio and my work. He did.

Somehow we ended up talking about Dyrdek. It turns out Jarod knew Rob from back when he was in SoCal working on cars. They had stayed friends. Jarod had a whole bunch of ideas and people he'd thought to connect me with, but Rob was the one I got a real kick out of the possibility of a connection.

Both Jarod and Rob are on Twitter. Jarod at one point talked with Rob about me and asked him who he'd want a piece of for the Fantasy Factory. "Shootout at the Fantasy Factory" by Traffic.

At the time, I already had "Mr. Fantasy" and so I painted it. Awhile later I found both a better picture of Winwood online, and the album Rob wanted at Hoodlums. Last week, for reasons I now know, I had the urge to paint the piece even though I hadn't heard from Jarod for awhile about Rob. So I painted it.

Yesterday morning I saw a tweet from Jarod to Rob about meeting up in Tempe. Rob was in the valley! So I sent a message to Jarod to see if he could hook us up. All I needed to do was frame the piece. And early that evening:

So cool. Rob was totally chill, but excited and interested in taking a few moments to have a conversation with my wife and I. He had done 2 signing events and was walking in to this place to introduce the movie he executive produced before getting on a plane for Atlanta. Apparently a normal day for him! But he was totally present in that moment with us. He made it feel like we could've spent as long as we wanted taking with him.

What's he going to do with my painting? It'll be awhile before I can show you, but I'll tell you in my newsletter next week. If you didn't get my 1st one and want in, email me and I'll add you to my list.

So exciting. What's going to happen today? I'm not sure what I'm expecting.

Peace.

GIFTED - Steve Winwood 05/18/09