04/27/2026
Yesterday morning while I was carving at the ridgeway rendevouz, this old hippie starts walking over to me with the biggest smile on his face, all excited about the fact that he has the same Dead shirt I’m wearing. With an equal amount of excitement I say “hey aren’t you Hoppy?” To which he replied yes. Hoppy Quick is one of the OG chainsaw carving legends. We shared stories from the road and he showed me his hippie bus he lives in and told me about all the cool projects he has in mind, most of which I have have goals of my own to do similar things. He told me I remind him of a younger version of himself (hopefully one day I will be that cool) Then he bought a shirt from me and had me sign it and said some really encouraging things about my art
I can’t tell you how many amazing people I’ve met and opportunities I’ve gotten simply from wearing a shirt from my favorite band. This weekend made me love and connect to chainsaw carving so much more because it really is a traveling circus, which is what draws me in to the Grateful Dead scene I love so dearly. Chainsaw carvers are such interesting people. You have to be a certain type of freak (and a little bit cocky) to say hey I can do that, and start making art with chainsaws. Every one I’ve met has such a cool story and are literal characters straight from a movie script, who share that free spirit and sense of adventure that makes you enamored with what is possible in life if you just take the chance on yourself and see what you are capable of.
I feel like a 17 year old Bob Weir stepping on to the further bus. life is pretty great.