Color version of hand illustrated tribute I did for Ricks wake... Interesting story behind this; Over the years I knew Rick he kept trying to take me surfing... but being fearful of sharks I always declined. 10 years after Ricks passing I moved to Kauai and eventually took up surfing, which became a way of life for me. While I was living on the island I pulled out the photostat of this ink drawing and started colorizing it in Illustrator. Something was very Deja-Vu-esque as I was working on the file, and it suddenly occurred to me that in 91, in my minds eye, I had drawn the basic topography of the point at Waipa of western Hanalei Bay. My favorite break was Middles in Hanalei, which is a left breaking wave, which is exactly what I drew. Another gotcha is that I drew Ricks board surfing empty. The day of the wake I spent some time with his parents and we were discussing the drawing and they asked me why the board was empty; I left it empty as I felt Ricks spirit would be forever surfing the cosmic waves. Unknown to me when I was drawing this; they had set Ricks ashes on a board and pushed it out to sea. I finished inking this around 9am the day of the wake, ran to Kinkos and ran about 200 B&W copies and made my way to the wake. I barely made it into the courtyard of the Cannery when I was mobbed and the posters were distributed in about 5 minutes. A few weeks before the accident Rick had asked me to come up north to live with him in exchange for an apprenticeship... his death completely spun my world around. Ricks kindness and inspiration live with me to this day. Although our plans for the future never came to be, I cherish the times we had and all the encouragement he gave me.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 21:20:58 +0000
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