#38. Canvas and Kindness: Matt Beard’s Artful Odyssey through Humboldt and Beyond

Scott Hammond: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, my new best friend, Matt Beard, welcome to 100% Humboldt Podcast. Welcome to the show.

Matt Beard: Thanks for having me.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, thanks for being here. So we all wanna know the Matt Beard story. Uh, tell us, uh, all about you. What, what's your job? What do you do, and where'd you come from?

Matt Beard: The Matt Beard story. Um,

Matt Beard: well, technically, I don't, I don't have a… I haven't had a job in a long time.

Matt Beard: Um

Scott Hammond: The jobless Matt Beard.

Matt Beard: I mean, I, you know, art's a job, right?

Matt Beard: It's a job.

Scott Hammond: Absolutely.

Matt Beard: Self-employed job, but, um, yeah, it's a funny, it's a funny, uh, funny reality just to have to wake up and go, "What, what, what am I doing today?"

Scott Hammond: Right, self-employed.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: What's your boss want you to do today?

Matt Beard: Right.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Matt Beard: That's a scary question. Um-

Scott Hammond: So how, how, where'd you come from? Where were you born, and how'd you get here?

Matt Beard: Oh, I grew up… Sorry, brushed the mic. I grew up in, um, Long Beach, Southern California. Moved up here, um, 18, uh, 1993 for Humboldt State.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: Um, didn't know a person. Didn't even come up here for the weed, just wanted to get away from-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … Southern California. And, uh-

Scott Hammond: Long Beach is pretty crowded.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: I saw a satellite photo, uh, about 20 years ago when I was working at the frame shop. Um, and someone brought in a satellite photo, and this was before we had, like, Google Earth, and it was the entire Southern California sprawl, like LA and Orange

Matt Beard: County-

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … and you could see the, the inland mountains,

Matt Beard: this gray blob spreading of concrete.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Matt Beard: And you could see enough detail, I could figure out where the house I grew up in

Matt Beard: was, and-

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's funny

Matt Beard: … right in the middle. You had to go an hour in every direction to get away, and I, I never realized. We were like, you… I thought, "Yeah, Long Beach, yeah, it's not bad. We're kind of near the beach. It's cool." But like-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … like wow, we were really confined.

Scott Hammond: Concrete jungle, literally.

Matt Beard: Yeah, it, it was, um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … intense. So coming up here was like summer camp year-round.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah.

Matt Beard: Awesome. Just-

Scott Hammond: I remember driving with my dad through Ukiah and then coming up into Willits and

Scott Hammond: everything-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … I'm going, "Mount- uh, I've never seen open mountains. Like, this is great." I mean-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … San Diego had some mountains, but this is-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … ex- extraordinary.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So did you study art at Humboldt?

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah. Started out oceanography.

Scott Hammond: Me too.

Matt Beard: Um, thinking, thinking then I'll s- I'll have to work near the ocean, and they convinced me that, uh-

Matt Beard: … "You continue down this path, you're gonna end up on a boat in the middle of the ocean for six months a year," and I'm like, "That's-"

Scott Hammond: That sucks

Matt Beard: … "even further from the beach than an office job," so- … this is not working.

Scott Hammond: Than Long Beach.

Matt Beard: Yeah. So, um, so I switched to art. My folks didn't, weren't really feeling that. I moved home for a semester and-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Matt Beard: … um, yeah, long story. Ended up coming back up.

Scott Hammond: So the folks didn't like the, the new art major?

Matt Beard: Yeah, they were all-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … "What are you gonna do with that?" And I was like, "Well, I'll pick up a minor in philosophy on the way."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And they were like-

Scott Hammond: That's very useful

Matt Beard: … "Well, okay." You know, I don't know.

Scott Hammond: That's useful.

Matt Beard: Uh, yeah, no.

Matt Beard: Um-

Scott Hammond: My dad used to grab me by my little beard when I was coming back to Oceanside from Humboldt.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: He goes, "What are those liberals teaching you up there, those

Scott Hammond: communists?"

Matt Beard: Oh, right.

Scott Hammond: And he was just, like, hardcore, and I would go, "I don't know, I, I liked, I, I like my classes."

Matt Beard: Right.

Scott Hammond: Like, I'm a straight-B student. I got this. So then, you know, now it's Cal Poly Humboldt.

Matt Beard: That it is.

Scott Hammond: That seems to come a lot, Nick. You know, it's like every… It, Humboldt State, Humboldt County, Cal Poly Humboldt, 'cause most people, I would say-

Matt Beard: Hmm

Scott Hammond: … many imports like you and I-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … SoCal, Bay Area, Humboldt State.

Matt Beard: Right.

Scott Hammond: So did you meet your wife there too?

Matt Beard: She moved up here. I met her up here, but not at, uh, not at Humboldt State.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: She was going to CR,

Matt Beard: um,

Matt Beard: and she was volunteering… Um, we have a convoluted story of how we met, but, um, she was volunteering at the pregnancy care center.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Matt Beard: And, um, I had just gone through a pretty wild, um, um, well, uh, encounter with God that I, I couldn't explain, but it changed me and-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Matt Beard: … I jumped into trying to explain what had happened to me through the faith I grew up with.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: So I jumped into going to church and doing the, the-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Matt Beard: … very, um,

Matt Beard: familiar,

Matt Beard: um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … Christianity. And I, my, I was sincere in it, um,

Matt Beard: um, in, in that through those connections, people I met at that time.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: Um, uh, I was doing a Bible study out on Samoa with a, with a buddy who came to the house I was living at and, you know, he was a farmer. Um, you know, there, we had weed growing in the closet and all that, and I was sort of, like, sort of making sense of the world here and, and my roommate that was growing the weed, he was like, "Hey, you should meet my friend Steve. He's always talking to me about Jesus too." And so we get hanging out, and so he's, he's a character. Um, really, really awesome guy. Um, we're still friends to this day.

Matt Beard: And, uh, a friend of his that he went to school with was this lady who ran the pregnancy center, and she was like, I don't know. She was a little older and more mature, and she was frustrated with me and him, just like, "You guys gotta get your act together and-"

Scott Hammond: Pull it together, man.

Matt Beard: Yeah, and we were like, "Why?" We're doing, we're doing all the things.

Scott Hammond: You weed guys.

Matt Beard: We seemed like we were doing pretty good.

Scott Hammond: Farmers.

Matt Beard: But, um, no, I mean, you know, s- I don't know. I don't know if Steve was at the time doing that or not. I wasn't. I just, I lived around it and, um-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Matt Beard: … had my, had my year of, um-

Scott Hammond: Who, who didn't? Yeah

Matt Beard: … jumping in. But, um, yeah. So anyway, that was the connection, the, the, through this lady, um, coming over to the pregnancy center and saw this gal volunteering.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Matt Beard: And I was like, "Hmm, probably hang out with her and-"

Scott Hammond: I'll ask you about her later. I-

Matt Beard: Turned out we could

Scott Hammond: … and I don't wanna throw names out, but I, I'm kinda curious. So you and I have a parallel journey. I was an ocean major from Southern California.

Matt Beard: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Met Joni, who went to CR.

Matt Beard: Ah. Ah.

Scott Hammond: And then tried to lens my God experience, which was re- very real. I mean-

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … moved in with some Christians who were, like, normal, and they weren't sacrificing goats or doing weird stuff. And I tried to lens it, and don't we do this? We lens this, whatever new revelation or knowledge-

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … or experience, we lens it through old wineskins,

Scott Hammond: through-

Matt Beard: Right

Scott Hammond: … old-

Matt Beard: Right

Scott Hammond: … ways of do- and mine was Adventist, Seventh Day Adventism. So how does this fi- fit into a Saturday Sabbath?

Scott Hammond: It did- and it didn't really work. It was a-

Matt Beard: Right

Scott Hammond: … it was shoving something into something to understand it.

Scott Hammond: So it, you know, suspending judgment and-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and to try to absorb new data and met Joni, and we were just good friends-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … for a long time, which was probably the right answer.

Matt Beard: Right.

Scott Hammond: 'Cause I was g- goofy. Like, I-

Matt Beard: Okay

Scott Hammond: … I know you can't believe it. I had really long hair.

Matt Beard: Ah.

Scott Hammond: It was beautiful. It was blonde. What happened?

Matt Beard: Beautiful blonde hair.

Scott Hammond: What happened, Dad? I go… My kids go, "What happened to you?" I go-

Matt Beard: Oh. Oh

Scott Hammond: … "Used to be cool, huh?" And they go, "Yeah."

Matt Beard: Oh, man.

Scott Hammond: I go, "You guys and drugs and time and age. You mess me up, man."

Matt Beard: My, my, uh, my 16-year-old said the other day, he's like, "I don't know. Back in, like…" Well, I don't think he said the year, but when I had a art space inside the surf shop in Arcata, so that was like 2015. He's like, "I don't know. Back then, you used to be cool."

Matt Beard: Like, ouch.

Scott Hammond: What even happened? What happened to you, Dad?

Matt Beard: Uh-

Scott Hammond: What… Who was the surf shop owner? He was a nice guy.

Matt Beard: Oh, which one?

Scott Hammond: The one in Arcata.

Matt Beard: Where-

Scott Hammond: The first one.

Matt Beard: The… Oh, the Humboldt Surf Company back in the days?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Well, he wasn't the original as far as I know. It's, there's been a-

Scott Hammond: Who's Hum-

Matt Beard: … series, but-

Scott Hammond: Who was, who was the main-

Matt Beard: Humboldt Surf Company was, um, Kirk.

Scott Hammond: Kirk. He was cool.

Matt Beard: Kirk and Diane. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And, um-

Scott Hammond: I like Kirk. That was your art in there.

Matt Beard: He was a character. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, he was a character.

Matt Beard: Yeah. You know, he used to, um, I was doing these, like, little illustrations on, um, rice paper, and then guys could have 'em, uh, you could put it in the, under the glass-

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … of a surfboard. So they were like these little original pieces of art, you know, and I'd spend like an evening. I'd do one or two of 'em, and I'd-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … I'd take 'em down to the shop so he could put 'em in the counter for sale.

Scott Hammond: Oh, right.

Matt Beard: And I- he'd buy 'em from me straight up. He'd pay 30 bucks for one, and I thought he was selling them for 50 or 60.

Scott Hammond: And they would be his collection.

Matt Beard: Well, years later, so he, he… I mean, it was like kind of my little supplement side thing.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: He would, he, he would just every couple weeks, he'd buy a few more. Years later, when he was moving, um, off the, uh, the plaza and back into the, the little space-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … um, he called me into the back. He's like, "Hey, check it out." He pulled out a folder, and I was like, "It's cool that he had 'em, but I thought that people were buying 'em."

Scott Hammond: He had a portfolio.

Matt Beard: They weren't. He was just supporting me through those years. He was like, "This-"

Scott Hammond: That's pretty cool.

Matt Beard: Yeah. It, it… But I had-

Scott Hammond: That's pretty nice

Matt Beard: … had some feels out of it. It felt good.

Matt Beard: But-

Scott Hammond: Little disappointing and cool.

Matt Beard: Yeah. Yeah, right. Both at once.

Scott Hammond: Like, hey, where, where is this? That's great. So, um, I was gonna ask you, so you went to Humboldt, you created art. You be- So you came back and finished your degree?

Matt Beard: Mm. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Matt Beard: Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And-

Matt Beard: It was only a semester I was, I was down. I took a semester-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Matt Beard: … off and-

Scott Hammond: Then married your sweetheart?

Matt Beard: Um, no. Finished the degree up here.

Matt Beard: I met her in the middle of, um, actually towards the end even.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And then, um, we both moved to SoCal.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: Um, so I… Okay, so yeah, I had a semester off-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … of Humboldt State, moved back home, came back up.

Matt Beard: Um, and then we met. I graduated. We moved down to Long Beach for another

Matt Beard: year.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Matt Beard: Just lowered the chair. That was really awkward.

Scott Hammond: It's okay.

Matt Beard: Um,

Matt Beard: so yeah. We, we married down there.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: Uh, lived like nine months and then, um, moved back up here as soon-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … as we could 'cause we both-

Scott Hammond: We got married at Port's Call-

Matt Beard: … loved it here

Scott Hammond: … Wedding Chapel. I think I told you that, right? In San Pedro Harbor.

Matt Beard: Oh, Pedro. Okay.

Scott Hammond: Remember the old little, uh, f- Seaport Village there?

Matt Beard: I know it's down there. I-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … um-

Scott Hammond: Know of it, yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Weddings on the hour. You should check it out.

Matt Beard: All right.

Scott Hammond: Uh, so, so real quick, I wanna give a plug for you or allow you to, while people are watching or listening to this, they could go online and look for… Is it beardart.com?

Matt Beard: Uh, that should get you there, but it's mattbeardart.com.

Scott Hammond: Matt Beard.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: B-E-A-R-D like a beard?

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Like the bigger one that you have that I have.

Matt Beard: Exactly, yeah. I changed… I, it used to be forever it was Beard Art.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: Um, and I had a logo and everything, like Beard Art, you know?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And my first studio space that I had was in Henderson Center.

Matt Beard: Um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … well, my first public, like, so I had a shop, you know. Um, that was in Henderson Center between the barber, and then there was a hair salon, and then Esmeralda's. I was a little spot.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Matt Beard: I think it's a jeweler now.

Scott Hammond: Over in Grotto?

Matt Beard: But I put a sign… Yeah, Grotto.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: So I put a sign up with the logo that just said Beard Art.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And I was there, I think, two years, and, uh, a good friend was like, after two years, she was like, "Oh, wait. This is you in here? I've been driving by forever, and I saw the sign Beard Art, and I just thought it was someone doing, like-

Scott Hammond: Doing beard stuff

Matt Beard: … braid- braiding poodles into hipsters' beards or something." And I was like, "You know-

Scott Hammond: No, that's in Portland

Matt Beard: … I should probably make it Matt Beard Art just to make it-

Scott Hammond: Just to make sure

Matt Beard: … clear." Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: 'Cause, uh-

Scott Hammond: That's good distinction. Yeah. So mattbeardart.com.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You have a website.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You're on Facebook?

Matt Beard: Yes.

Scott Hammond: All right.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So we can find you on LinkedIn, Instagram?

Matt Beard: Uh, LinkedIn-

Scott Hammond: TikTok?

Matt Beard: …

Matt Beard: is-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … gonna be dicey.

Scott Hammond: Probably.

Matt Beard: Facebook and Instagram the-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Seems like that's where everybody is.

Matt Beard: Um-

Scott Hammond: So what do you like about what you do? Uh, what's, what are you proud of? And, and then I wanna cycle into, like, the art community in Humboldt and go-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … kind of your thoughts on.

Matt Beard: Um, you know, like yeah. Um-Just, you know, I graduated about '98 and just kind of made a commitment. Nothing, nothing formal, but I just said, "I don't wanna get roped into working full time," but I wasn't able to-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … do art full time either. There's no way starting out that-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … that was gonna be feasible. So I just, I worked a bazillion different part-time jobs, you know-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Matt Beard: … construction, stocking beer and dog food at the co-op, and-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Matt Beard: … picture framing. Um, just random-

Scott Hammond: What was fun?

Matt Beard: … stuff.

Scott Hammond: What was fun in that, in any of that?

Matt Beard: Um, well, the co-op was fun when they had a ping pong table until we abused that privilege and then it became not so fun.

Scott Hammond: It became gone.

Matt Beard: Yeah. It was… And yeah. Um-

Scott Hammond: Became the background-

Matt Beard: That was a-

Scott Hammond: … for Beard Art

Matt Beard: … that was a great time. That was… I, I, I enjoyed working there, but it was 6:00 in the morning you had to be there every day, and they, they wanted me there earlier. I don't know. I'm not a m- morning person.

Scott Hammond: Was David Lippman your GM at the time? 'Cause he was probably later than you.

Matt Beard: That rings a bell.

Scott Hammond: He's a good friend of ours that retired from the Arcata Co-op.

Scott Hammond: Located-

Matt Beard: I remember the-

Scott Hammond: By the way-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … my shtick, it's really funny-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … so polite laughs. Located right here in Arcata, California, the top of the Bay for you guys unversed in Humboldt-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … uh, geography. And I'll tell the best joke that I ever tell, and maybe I'll save it. Did you hear the one about the cartographer that couldn't get a job 'cause he had no sense of Yuma?

Scott Hammond: All right.

Matt Beard: That's pretty good.

Scott Hammond: And you have to explain it.

Matt Beard: That's pretty good. No, I, I-

Scott Hammond: Yuma, is it Arizona?

Matt Beard: Yeah, it took a second. Yeah, sorry.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I like the map.

Matt Beard: You know, I got the route though, and I'm getting distracted. I was like, "Yuma's not on that map."

Scott Hammond: No, it's way over there.

Matt Beard: Yeah, that's-

Scott Hammond: It's, it's-

Matt Beard: … that's what was throwing me off there

Scott Hammond: … it's out over there on Myrtle Avenue.

Matt Beard: Uh-

Scott Hammond: So the co-op was fun until the ping pong went away.

Matt Beard: Till the ping pong was gone, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Matt Beard: It's not fun anymore. Um-

Scott Hammond: Till the ping pong was gone.

Matt Beard: There might be a song in there.

Scott Hammond: I think it's a poem at least.

Matt Beard: Um, yeah. And then… Oh, yeah. So yeah, that's, that's, that was, um, that's interesting. So that was, while working at the co-op, um, that was back, like, what? 2008, '9. Um, and all the, um, all the grow shops, the, you know, the, um,

Matt Beard: hydroponic-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … shops were, were really booming. That was, like, boom time for them.

Matt Beard: And, uh-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … the guys that had the Fertile World shop down, um, like B Street maybe, B and Fourth. I'm not sure what their address is. But, um, they had me do a label for some, like, fertilizer product they had.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Matt Beard: And I drew the artwork for it, and they printed it up. 'Cause they'd been making fertilizers for their friends forever and, um, you know, but they just had no labels. They weren't, they were only doing it just for people they knew.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: They weren't trying to make a commercial go of it. They had me do this label and, and, uh, they had it on the shelf, and some of the reps came in and were like, "Dude, what's this? We, we could sell this." And so they started-

Scott Hammond: That's great

Matt Beard: … a company. And, and they, they wanted me to work for them. And I was like, "Well,

Matt Beard: um-

Matt Beard: … I got, like, a job at the co-op, you know, and they have, like, it's part-time, and they've got health insurance. And I d- you know, I'm like, uh…" And they're like, "Well, we'll, we'll pay you better," and, you know. I'm like, uh… They, they convinced me to do it, and I was thinking, "This is maybe dumb because maybe I'm only gonna work for, like, six months, and I'll design some labels, and then they'll be like, 'Okay, we don't need you.'"

Scott Hammond: See ya. Yeah.

Matt Beard: And that turned into about, like, seven years-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Matt Beard: … of work.

Scott Hammond: Same company?

Matt Beard: The business really took off. Yeah, we got to go to trade shows and-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Matt Beard: … do all kinds of, um… It was fun. It was a lot of fun. They… I was, like, drawing bumblebees and being-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Matt Beard: … like, having a real job. They called me a marketing director.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Matt Beard: And, um-

Matt Beard: … and I didn't market one-

Scott Hammond: They labeled you

Matt Beard: … one

Matt Beard: thing-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … for them 'cause I didn't know about… Like, it's, it's pretty technical. They, they, they, they knew all the stuff. I'd be like, "How am I supposed to market this? You tell me what you ha- You tell me how to mar- I'll just draw the pictures," you

Matt Beard: know?

Scott Hammond: Do the pictures.

Matt Beard: And so I could do the pictures. I figured out how to, you know, websites and catalogs and all the-

Matt Beard: … um, graphics stuff.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Matt Beard: So it was kind of a crash course in, like, a little bit more of a graphic

Scott Hammond: So was this-

Matt Beard: … aspect

Scott Hammond: … the time when graphics were taking off in terms of, uh, Adobe and Photoshop and things like that? 'Cause it seems-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … like that's a point where there was a, a spike in graphic software.

Matt Beard: Probably so. Yeah, I mean, my, my nemesis was, um,

Matt Beard: Illustrator.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Matt Beard: 'Cause I could do all these graphics in Photoshop.

Matt Beard: As a artist-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Matt Beard: … like, making handmade stuff, like-

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … like, draw the, the drawing and, and-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Matt Beard: … ink the lines real clean and then scan them, and I could use Illustrator to clean up the lines.

Scott Hammond: I gotcha.

Matt Beard: But man, trying to create work in that program when you're not a, um… Like, the learning curve is nerd. I just couldn't get it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And then, and it used to be no big deal. Like, before, you could bring any art to a T-shirt guy, and they would do all the figuring it out.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And somewhere during those years, I started getting so frustrated because they… People would want you to do a T-shirt, and the T-shirt printers would be like, "Well, it has to be vector."

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Matt Beard: I'm like, "Well, dang it." Like-

Scott Hammond: Come on, man

Matt Beard: … 10 years ago, it didn't have to be vector. There was no vector. Now everything has to be vector?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Come on. Like, the old guys could figure this stuff out.

Matt Beard: But, um-

Scott Hammond: Speaking of T-shirt guys-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … I, I don't know if we mentioned this at lunch the other day. Do you know David Smith, the Grateful Dead T-shirt guy?

Matt Beard: Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: He's a good friend of ours.

Matt Beard: Yeah, it's been, it's been a long time. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, he's still around.

Matt Beard: He's Seventh Day, wasn't he? Or he was in the old days.

Scott Hammond: Could've been.

Matt Beard: I don't think-

Scott Hammond: He could've been

Matt Beard: … when I met him back in, I mean, like, gosh, that would've been around, like, 2000 or something.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Matt Beard: Um, I did, I did a couple pieces for him.

Scott Hammond: Oh, did you? Okay.

Matt Beard: And I don't think they really took off well. They were probably-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. He's all dead heads and Jesus

Matt Beard: … I don't know what I did. Yeah, they were all tie-dye.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Everything's tie-dye.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, he does all the dead-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … things. He-

Matt Beard: And, uh, yeah, I don't think… I think my shirts are probably weird. They didn't really work. But, um, but he was a nice dude. I, I like him.

Scott Hammond: Fertilizer, great. T-shirts, eh.

Matt Beard: Yeah. I mean, yeah, I remember he was super into the Grateful Dead. He's like, "Check this one out. This one. Like, the gospel's in this, you know-"

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … "Dead song." And, and, uh-

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah. It's true. It's fun.

Scott Hammond: I've got a g- really good shirt from hi- from him.

Scott Hammond: It's a-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … typewriter. And anyway, the design-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … here nor there. So tell us about the art community that you were raised up in here, how you've related to artists in, in Humboldt, if you have, and, um-You know, short of talking smack, which I don't think you, you could or would, but what, what, what's the environment here, and where's it going?

Matt Beard: Um-

Scott Hammond: It's a pretty fertile art community right?

Matt Beard: No, this place is cool for art. It really is. Um, it's… There's kind of… It's like there's like the, the, the good things about Humboldt for art are also what makes it

Matt Beard: challenging.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Matt Beard: Um-

Scott Hammond: How so?

Matt Beard: Like, they're… The community is so strong. There's so much creativity and so much art.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: So much love for art, so much support for art.

Matt Beard: Like it's, it's, um, art is really revered, but it's also really common.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Matt Beard: So, um-

Scott Hammond: And good art. Yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah. Good, great art. You know, it's, um-

Scott Hammond: Great art. Yeah

Matt Beard: … s- so the challenge here to make a go of art, and I kind of… This sort of gelled for me when I was working. One of the jobs I had for a while was working at the picture frame shop, Eureka Art

Matt Beard: and Frame.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, right over here-

Matt Beard: That's-

Scott Hammond: … in Eureka, California.

Matt Beard: Yeah. Right.

Scott Hammond: It said Humboldt.

Matt Beard: I, I see it right there, yeah. Um, which is where my gallery is, speaking of, if there's a plug right there for me.

Scott Hammond: Your gallery's still there? Okay.

Matt Beard: It's still inside Eureka Art Frame.

Scott Hammond: Right around the corner from, um, Brick and Fire Restaurant.

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm. Yeah. My name is literally on the building. It's awkward.

Scott Hammond: I've seen that, yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And I figured you would base out of there-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and I could come and see you and hang. You, you… No, it's just a gallery.

Matt Beard: Uh, it's just a gallery.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Matt Beard: And I put, I had to put my… Like, I was like, "Wow, this feel funny, like, having my name on a building." But,

Matt Beard: like, there's no windows. There's no entrance. It's through the frame shop.

Matt Beard: I'm like-

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … "If I didn't put that there, people would-"

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … probably just not even figure out where I am.

Scott Hammond: Do you still know the founders, uh, Don and his wife? Are, are they still around, the Eureka Frame?

Matt Beard: Oh.

Scott Hammond: They were downtown on E Street forever, um,

Scott Hammond: really ni-

Matt Beard: Paul?

Scott Hammond: Paul.

Matt Beard: Paul.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Thank you.

Matt Beard: Paul and Linda? Yeah, they still own the building.

Scott Hammond: Are they still around?

Matt Beard: Uh, they come up sometimes. I haven't seen them for a long time.

Scott Hammond: Super nice people.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, real gentle-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … couple.

Matt Beard: So they were– I worked for them for, like, probably five or six, seven years.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, small world.

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And Brick and Fire ain't too bad either.

Matt Beard: No, it's not.

Scott Hammond: It's pretty delicious. Anyway, sorry.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Go ahead.

Matt Beard: Um, I don't know where… What was I, uh, wondering?

Scott Hammond: Uh, art in Humboldt County and your place in-

Matt Beard: Oh, yeah. So when I was working there, that's what I remember just realizing. Like, 'cause the really fun thing as an artist working at a frame shop like that is how many, um, artists would come in for getting ready for a show-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … to have stuff framed, and, you know, you'd, you'd-

Scott Hammond: Oh, right

Matt Beard: … you'd be framing a lot of, like, photos of people's poodles and stuff too. Like, where it's-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Matt Beard: … okay, what are you… But, like, seeing the artists come in, that was always a

Matt Beard: highlight.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Got to meet a lot of, um, people that I'd looked up to for years, and just getting to know people and started realizing, you know, like, everybody that is making a go of art as a career, not just, um, not just a hobby-

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … um,

Matt Beard: is either…

Matt Beard: Well, like, they are doing something more than just local.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Matt Beard: They're all doing something out of the area. They have a bigger emphasis-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … or some bigger, something bigger than just doing shows around

Matt Beard: town.

Scott Hammond: So outreach.

Matt Beard: Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … and there's some that do shows around town, but, but… And they probably are doing pretty well, but, like, for the most

Matt Beard: part, you know, like, not every artist is in a position where they have to make a livelihood from it because-

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … you know, maybe, maybe your spouse works, and it's a hobby, and you're not-

Scott Hammond: It's fun

Matt Beard: … you're not at it all the time, right?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah, it's just-

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … or it's an outlet. It's just a creative.

Matt Beard: It's a-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Matt Beard: … on your off time. But, um, but, you know, what I wanted to do was just I wanted to do art-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … 'cause I didn't like to work mostly. So I-

Scott Hammond: That's a lot of candor

Matt Beard: … so I was taking notes and going, "How do you do this?" Right?

Matt Beard: Um, and so what, uh, what I took from that was like, "Oh no, you gotta, you gotta get out of the area." So when I would go visit family down south, I would take– Back in those days, I would take… And, you know, it was cool. There was magazines in those days. There was Surf Media. Like, there was, like, multiple-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … probably five different surf magazine publications in print that people liked.

Scott Hammond: We used to get them all the time.

Matt Beard: Yeah. So I would go, I would take CDs, you know, of work and go try to meet the art editors, or I'd hardly ever get past the front desk. But I'd just take them down there and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … sling, sling stuff at them, and it never really went anywhere.

Scott Hammond: At the surf magazines-

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … at the headquarters?

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Are they mostly LA?

Matt Beard: Um, Orange County.

Scott Hammond: Orange.

Matt Beard: Like San Clemente.

Scott Hammond: Okay. Yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Familiar.

Matt Beard: And, yeah, they would, um-

Scott Hammond: San Clemente, that's-

Matt Beard: You know, I would, I would, I would-

Scott Hammond: It's like Surfer and Surfer

Matt Beard: It was funny. It's like I'd hardly ever get past the receptionist. Like, once in a while, like, I'd be catch them at a right time, and someone would have me back and check out the work. They'd be, "Oh, this is really cool," and they'd high-five me-

Scott Hammond: We have to do it

Matt Beard: … and send me away. But like-

Scott Hammond: Thanks for coming

Matt Beard: … yeah, they would be polite, but they're like, "How? Okay, don't let him in again," you know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Um-

Scott Hammond: How did he get in the building?

Matt Beard: Yeah. And, uh, and then I, yeah, the one year, one year everything clicked.

Matt Beard: And, uh, gosh, it seems like I ended up getting some work in-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Matt Beard: … Surfer, Surfing. It all culminated in, um, the Surfer's Journal. I ended up, um, landing a, a, a eight-page spread in the Surfer's Journal, which

Matt Beard: is like the-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Matt Beard: … the… That's like the holy grail, it still is, of, uh, surf

Matt Beard: media. So-

Scott Hammond: Is that a monthly subscription-based-

Matt Beard: It's monthly. Yeah. And there's hardly any ads.

Matt Beard: It's, um-

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Matt Beard: But-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I've seen it

Matt Beard: … it's really good articles. They always feature– They don't always, but almost every issue features a different artist.

Matt Beard: Um, so they– It's just, you know, it's not like just competitions and board shorts and stuff.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: It's, it's, um-

Scott Hammond: It's more than that

Matt Beard: … for, like, for people that actually read too, you know?

Scott Hammond: The culture of surf.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And so that, that was huge.

Scott Hammond: So that launched-

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … some things.

Matt Beard: So, yeah, that, that put it, like, not just local. That, that kind of introduced some things. And then that was even still kind of tough, like, trying to make that go, 'cause I'm trying to figure out how to make a website on my own. I don't know. This was 2008.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And that's still pretty hard to do.

Scott Hammond: Nobody did it.

Matt Beard: It's not-

Scott Hammond: 20 bucks.

Matt Beard: Yeah. And it's not, um… Now it's almost pretty easy, but, like-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah

Matt Beard: … then it was like you had to figure things out. It was tough.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Matt Beard: Um, and then once you have it, what are you gonna do with it? Like, so there was– It did– It still was, like, sputtering along.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And then, um, uh, what clicked was when, um-Gosh, a couple of friends in San Diego wanted to go painting outdoors.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Matt Beard: Okay, so I kind of like at 2008, I got that article in the journal and I thought, "You know what'd be cool would be to paint the whole California coast." That's when I first kind of like thought-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Matt Beard: … I'm gonna try to make a point of doing that. And I went for it, and I s- and I would paint like maybe eight or 10 paintings a year. So, and I realized-

Scott Hammond: Vista City to Baa.

Matt Beard: Yeah, but I realized eight or 10 paintings a year, and we have like-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Matt Beard: … 800 miles of coast.

Scott Hammond: This would be a lifetime.

Matt Beard: I'm not… I won't have enough… I don't, this isn't gonna work.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And I, so I kind of got discouraged. And I would do commissions and just plug away at it, but it was like that, that goal seems out of reach.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And then, um, a couple of guys in San Diego, Norm Daniels and Wade Konikowski, they, uh, I was down there and they were like, "Man, the weather's gonna be super clear. Let's go paint La Jolla."

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Matt Beard: "Let's go set up plein air." And I hadn't, I'd, I had a

Matt Beard: spell in, uh, around 2000 when I got really into plein air painting.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And for like a year or two, that's all I did was go out, hike into the hills and-

Scott Hammond: Explain plein air. It's easy-

Matt Beard: Oh

Scott Hammond: … explanation.

Matt Beard: Well, yeah, when you, it's just, uh, painting on location, like painting, um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … usually it's landscape work. It can be s- it can be like still lifes and stuff.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: But it's painting from life in the open air, um-

Scott Hammond: Gotcha

Matt Beard: … usually outdoors.

Matt Beard: Um-

Scott Hammond: A lot of good plein air painters here.

Matt Beard: Oh.

Scott Hammond: Great ones.

Matt Beard: It's phenomenal-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … community here. Yeah, there's some of the greatest in the world live here. We have like the Jim McVickers, Doc Schluter, those guys that are just-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … they're these upper echelon dudes, and then-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … you know, a whole community of great artists that-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, one of our Humboldt heroes is, he's a vet. He's quite good.

Matt Beard: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, Jim loves him. He's on- online a lot.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I'll think of his name, here in a sec.

Matt Beard: Okay. Okay.

Scott Hammond: The, um, so at the arch.

Matt Beard: Oh, oh, Ryan Jensen.

Scott Hammond: Thank you.

Matt Beard: Ryan.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Ryan.

Matt Beard: Ry- yeah, well, he's like-

Scott Hammond: Cool guy.

Matt Beard: Yeah, he just jumped into art a couple of years ago, and he's like going, he's, I think he's like judging plein air competition. I don't know. He's, he's-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. And you know Steve

Matt Beard: … he just took off. Steve Taylor?

Scott Hammond: Steve Taylor.

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: His stuff is really fun.

Matt Beard: Yeah. Another guy that got into art late in life.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And just-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … hit the ground making fabulous paintings.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Like, pretty cool.

Scott Hammond: I got into podcasting late in life.

Matt Beard: Kind of depressing as an artist that's like tried all his life-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, right

Matt Beard: … and then you're like, "Wait, you got-"

Scott Hammond: You got two years

Matt Beard: … Caltrans and then just started crushing these awesome pa-

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: How did you… You make it look easy. Now I feel bad.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, my friend Will Butler.

Matt Beard: I, I make it look hard.

Scott Hammond: My friend Will pic- picked up, yeah.

Matt Beard: You make it look really hard. That's not good.

Scott Hammond: My friend Will just picked up a guitar, and just two years, he's amazing.

Matt Beard: Yeah, right?

Scott Hammond: Picked up the golf clubs. He's just crushing it.

Matt Beard: You know, my theory is like they were, they were working on that for a long time.

Scott Hammond: In other ways, yeah.

Matt Beard: Their, yeah, there's a, the, a foundation for their creative life was being built

Matt Beard: for years.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: So there was a lot of energy building-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … and ready to be released. They didn't just say, "Well, you know, I think I might try this."

Scott Hammond: That's fair. Yeah, they're not just magically gifted.

Matt Beard: I, I hope not.

Scott Hammond: Well, maybe there's that. Hate those guys. My girls did, uh, karate for years in McKinleyville, Joyful Healer Church, and then they went over-

Matt Beard: Okay

Scott Hammond: … and they all became great ballerinas.

Matt Beard: Okay.

Scott Hammond: 'Cause the, the crossover body mechanics.

Matt Beard: I can see that, yeah, like the a- awareness of the, the balance and

Matt Beard: movement.

Scott Hammond: They didn't hurt anyone doing it.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Or themselves.

Matt Beard: They never get distracted mid-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … mid-ballerina and just do a-

Scott Hammond: Just stay focused

Matt Beard: … just chop.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: You know?

Scott Hammond: It's easier than… Well, I don't know how, how easy any of it is.

Matt Beard: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Um, back to the shop real quick.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, do you ever meet, uh, John Wessa?

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, so John would probably come in.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And Michael Guerrero, he does a lot of the-

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … what do they call their art? Is it lithographs?

Matt Beard: Uh, lith- uh, serigraph.

Scott Hammond: Serigraph.

Matt Beard: I believe.

Scott Hammond: That's the layers.

Matt Beard: Yeah, yeah, like silk screen.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: Pretty much.

Scott Hammond: Maybe you know our friend, uh, Sarah Starr?

Matt Beard: Oh, that sh- rings a bell.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: What does she do?

Scott Hammond: She's, uh, she does a lot of tile work, but she does some painting too.

Matt Beard: Okay. Okay.

Scott Hammond: Super good friends with her.

Matt Beard: Yeah, I know the name.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Anyway, small community. So you, you came out h- well, I want to say above. I, I don't mean that in terms of you marketed out of the area and

Scott Hammond: became-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … a little bit more, uh, famous, if you will.

Matt Beard: I mean, yeah, that's kind of-

Scott Hammond: You had some notoriety.

Matt Beard: Yeah. It was all that, like, in hindsight. So okay, so those guys dragged me out to go paint outdoors.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Oh, right, you're back painting plein air.

Matt Beard: And that's when it clicked for me going, "Oh, wait,

Matt Beard: I have this thing I wanted to do." I wanted to paint the whole state because, you know, growing up in Southern California, family there.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: Like, like, you know, you know this. You end up, especially when you're young, those college years, you're, you're going, you're driving up and down the state a couple of times a year sometimes.

Scott Hammond: All the time.

Matt Beard: Family stuff.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Matt Beard: You know, holidays, things like… And I'm driving the length of the coast. I'm always, you know-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … taking a different section, trying to, Highway 1, and exploring, looking for waves and like-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Matt Beard: … just this whole state is so beautiful. I was like, "I want to paint the whole thing." But I couldn't do it until it clicked and I said, "Wow, those guys had me come out," and in like three hours, I went away with a painting that was super awkward and weird. But I, it, it made me remember this can actually be a lot of fun.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Matt Beard: The paintings don't have to be masterpieces.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: They just need to be a record of that place at that time. And, and that's actually-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, capture

Matt Beard: … once you let go of it being perfect-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … you go, "This is actually really fun."

Scott Hammond: This is Torrey Pines Black Be- Black Beach.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And so then I'm like, "Man, I could do, I could do several of these in a day."

Scott Hammond: It's kind of awesome.

Matt Beard: "I could go on a trip-"

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … and paint 30 paintings on one trip."

Scott Hammond: Right.

Matt Beard: That would, would've taken me three years before. I can do that in a, a week.

Scott Hammond: So you went for it.

Matt Beard: Yeah. So around 2015, I, I did a, a trip the whole

Matt Beard: state from one end to the other. It took three weeks, you know, sleeping in the van and just-

Scott Hammond: That, that fast?

Matt Beard: Yeah. And, um, but I s-

Scott Hammond: You, you slept in a van down by the river?

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Government.

Matt Beard: I did.

Scott Hammond: So there's a reference there for some of you.

Matt Beard: I have a painting of, of, uh, Moon-

Scott Hammond: Government cheese

Matt Beard: … of Moonstone Beach.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh.

Matt Beard: Uh, uh, from, it was a commission, uh, a couple that lives in a house up above Moonstone.They have this great view of the parking lot at Moonstone with a, um, little river going out to sea, and

Matt Beard: they-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … and it's cool view. So I painted the parking lot empty except for my,

Matt Beard: my old yellow GMC Vandura, like I used to drive down there.

Scott Hammond: You're right.

Matt Beard: And, and so I put my van on the parking lot and called the painting Down By

Matt Beard: The River.

Scott Hammond: Oh, nice.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Just 'cause of that reference there.

Scott Hammond: Joni and I got baptized in that river, uh, at 19.

Matt Beard: Okay.

Scott Hammond: It was February. It was 40 degrees maybe and windy

Scott Hammond: and rainy.

Matt Beard: Mm.

Scott Hammond: We had these big black-

Matt Beard: Proper.

Scott Hammond: We had these big black robes. We looked like druids.

Matt Beard: Right? What kind of cult ceremony is this?

Scott Hammond: You know, it, it was a great cult day that day. We got baptized.

Matt Beard: Ah.

Scott Hammond: You know, no van down by the river, but-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … um, it was amazing. It was … I was so glad to, to do that. We came up out of the water and, uh, approached, uh, a new do- do- new life.

Matt Beard: Awesome.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, it was really good. So you went coast to coast. That's rad, I mean border to border.

Matt Beard: Border to border. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. So Imperial Beach all the way up to Smith River or something.

Matt Beard: I don't think I made it to Imperial on that trip, but, but yeah, I've, I've gone and painted literally like, you know, you, you… I had to park and walk to get to it, but the border fence.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah. Right there.

Matt Beard: Right down and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … you know-

Scott Hammond: Tijuana River

Matt Beard: … it's a, it's a… That's a strange scene because you're there.

Scott Hammond: It's so weird down there.

Matt Beard: And on our side, it's like drab and gray, and there's border patrol agents with, you know, gun racks, and you're being watched and surveilled.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And it's, you know, they're letting only two people at a time go over up to the fence, and it's really locked down tight, and it's-

Scott Hammond: Oh, really? Okay

Matt Beard: … and it's kind of like, huh. Then you look through the bars of the fence and there's like kites flying and cotton candy machines, and they're-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … having a party, and you're like-

Scott Hammond: Really?

Matt Beard: … going, "Man."

Scott Hammond: That's weird, huh?

Matt Beard: Did I… Maybe, maybe I've made some wrong choices because it looks a lot more fun over there. I know they want to… Like, I know.

Scott Hammond: I wanna be in that country.

Matt Beard: But it's like-

Scott Hammond: It's fun

Matt Beard: … it's, it's, it's a little jarring standing there painting.

Scott Hammond: Was the, uh, was the bullring still down there? 'Cause back in the day-

Matt Beard: Oh, that was the, um, that was the lineup, uh, that people used to for I think surfing, uh, the, the, the slough, the Tijuana Slough.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Right, right?

Scott Hammond: There's a big, big wave of the day.

Matt Beard: I don't know. That's a whole, that's a whole other-

Scott Hammond: But there's a bullfighting ring back-

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … when I was a kid down there. They, um, I would think it's still there. I don't know though.

Matt Beard: Yeah. I don't know either.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Imperial Beach pretty nondescript though. I mean, the… It's got a pier.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Did you go to Coronado and do some of that?

Matt Beard: Uh, you know, I went to Coronado once to paint and, um,

Matt Beard: it was hot.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And it's just flat and sandy, and there's-

Scott Hammond: Why don't you paint the Hotel Del? Everybody's painted the Hotel.

Matt Beard: It was… Well, I, I thought it would be cool to paint a good painting of it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And I, I just couldn't find a place to be.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And I got annoyed, and I left. I just, I said, "I'm not going back here." And then I've seen some great paintings of it, though.

Scott Hammond: Oh, it's a, oh, it's magical.

Matt Beard: Um-

Scott Hammond: It's a cool old building to be in.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's fun. Did you-

Matt Beard: I think I get greedy. I get greedy when I'm looking for a place to paint from, 'cause if I see it, if there's a cool building like that, I'm like, "Yeah, I want the building."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: But I also want the slope of the beach, and I wanna be able to see some waves, and I want the headland of like Point Loma in the distance and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … and I want it all.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Matt Beard: And if all I can get is the hotel, I'm like, "No, that's not gonna work."

Scott Hammond: That doesn't settle.

Matt Beard: "I gotta…"

Scott Hammond: So what was the furthest south painting? Point Loma or Ocean Beach or?

Matt Beard: Fur- on that trip?

Scott Hammond: Yeah. PV at Mission Beach.

Matt Beard: I think, I think that trip might have ended in La Jolla.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Just right there in La Jolla.

Matt Beard: Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. La Jolla's cool.

Matt Beard: La Jolla.

Scott Hammond: La Jolla.

Matt Beard: Um,

Matt Beard: yeah. I ended up, I, I ended up in the ER that night. I don't know what happened. I think I, I, uh, maybe three weeks in the road eating gas station food. I don't know what I did.

Scott Hammond: Oh, was that the end of the line for you?

Matt Beard: But it was. Uh-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Matt Beard: … there was a fundraiser for, um, Scripps Institute… No, not Scripps. Um, uh, through San Diego State, there's a, um, cancer res- Moores Cancer Research Center.

Scott Hammond: UCSD?

Matt Beard: Cancer, Moores Cancer Center.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Somewhere.

Matt Beard: They, they do, you know, research and treatment, um, cancer. This big fundraiser they do every year, um, uh, the Longboard Legends and Lu'au Invitational or something. So they get some, like, legendary, you know, surfers from back in the day, and-

Scott Hammond: They do it at the beach.

Matt Beard: And, yeah

Scott Hammond: … like La Jolla Shores or whatever.

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm, La Jolla Shores. And companies will sponsor. You know, you pay and get on a team and go-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Matt Beard: … in this contest, and they raise a bunch of money. But they usually, every year they have a different artist, uh, do artwork for them, and it's usually of Scripps, some different view of

Matt Beard: Scripps.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And, um, they auction them off, and it's, um… I mean, they've, they've got a track record that those paintings go for a lot of money. They don't, they don't let you split it, which is kind of a bummer.

Matt Beard: But, um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … but it's sort of prestigious. The other artists that have done it in the past, I really look up to a bunch of them. It's like this is kind of cool company to be in.

Matt Beard: So-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Matt Beard: … so at the end of that trip, I was bringing a painting down that I'd done for it-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Matt Beard: … and painted live, um, at their VIP night, and it was super fun. But all of a sudden, I'm like, I'm having this crazy, I feel like I'm being stabbed in the side of my-

Scott Hammond: Where's the bathroom?

Matt Beard: … stomach, and I'm keeled over. No, I don't need the restroom. I just-

Scott Hammond: Oh, I'm dying

Matt Beard: … I'm having a hard time breathing 'cause-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … I feel like I'm being s- I thought I had a-

Scott Hammond: Oh, crap

Matt Beard: … uh, something ruptured or something, you know. And, uh, one of the guys there, his wife was a nurse, and she's like, she, yeah, she's like checking me out. She's like, "Well, I don't know. Like, it's… We should get you to the…" You know, so we went to ER that night and-

Scott Hammond: The Scripps Hospital?

Matt Beard: Yeah. And, uh, and they checked. I was there for a couple hours, and by the time they, they were done, they just did a bunch of tests. They couldn't find anything.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It was the tacos, man.

Matt Beard: I've never felt anything like that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And, um, anyway, yeah, it was, uh, I probably didn't take care of dehydration maybe. I wasn't-

Scott Hammond: Couldn't hold anyone up. Yeah

Matt Beard: … yeah. And then, um-

Scott Hammond: We used to spend a lot of time there, Black's Beach, the nude beach up the wa- way

Scott Hammond: there, and-

Matt Beard: Black's is-

Scott Hammond: The place where you, where nude people shouldn't go nude. Most people that choose to do that shouldn't. Um, but the waves are amazing.

Matt Beard: Yeah. It's a good spot. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Just ma- It's, and it's the only nature really down there 'cause you have to hike-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … down to the beach.

Matt Beard: Right.

Scott Hammond: And, uh, Joni and I were down, um-And I was down at La Jolla Shores. There was a blind surfing contest.

Matt Beard: Oh, cool.

Scott Hammond: Blind people.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And it was so cool, and they-

Matt Beard: That's different

Scott Hammond: … these guys from around the- it was a world-class, people from around the world.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And it was like-

Matt Beard: That's different

Scott Hammond: … they would get them, you know, into the ocean, and then they would ride a wave. It was just a trip.

Matt Beard: Right.

Scott Hammond: Really fun.

Matt Beard: Right.

Scott Hammond: And then learned to dive in the La Jolla, La Jolla Cove.

Matt Beard: Oh, that's gotta be beautiful.

Scott Hammond: It was cool, man. It-

Matt Beard: The water down there is just… That's a pretty special place.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Depending on the time of the year and, um, maybe one of the only positive things I did in high school besides playing on the bong team. Jody goes, "You got certified scuba?" I go, "Yeah. I'm amazing." So it wasn't all a loss.

Matt Beard: Yeah. I love painting La Jolla.

Matt Beard: That's a-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … that's a fun place.

Scott Hammond: It's, it's special. So rather than walk you all the way up to Smith River, did you go to Rincon or-

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … or Steamer, Steamers-

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … and all that?

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And probably some really remote stuff. Let, let's mention that. So Big Sur, I mean, out, out the coast, like something that we wouldn't know about that was-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and I've, I've seen a lot of it, but some s- spots that were magic amazing.

Matt Beard: Yeah, I mean, um, it's been fun. Like, I, the… You know, once… I have a map where I fill in dots, you know, like I, uh-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … literally on my site you can, there's a Google map with pins-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … and you can see, click a pin and see the paintings of it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And it's just literally lit up the whole state, but there's a couple gaps.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Matt Beard: Um, one of the gaps, uh, is probably my favorite gap 'cause it's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Scott Hammond: Oh, right.

Matt Beard: And I was like, "Oh, I can't get out there. I don't know. Nobody goes out there." And, um, turns out a guy that's a firefighter out there saw that I was trying to paint the whole state, and he's like, "Hey, I see you don't have any pins in Vandenberg. We gotta fix that." And, um-

Scott Hammond: I'll get you out there

Matt Beard: … he got me out there, and I thought he'd have to be escorted by… I thought there was, like, security on these places-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Matt Beard: … you know, but turns out he just signed me in, and they gave me a printout that said I could be there for the week, come and go-

Scott Hammond: Sweet

Matt Beard: … anytime, had full range.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Matt Beard: Um, found, um, we ended up finding this little, this little road on the south end that goes toward Jalama-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Matt Beard: … with a, um, there was a gate locked with a combo, and I won't divulge how, but, um, I acquired through pretty-

Scott Hammond: Combo

Matt Beard: … pretty surprisingly serendipitous means, the combo was attained, and, uh, so yeah-

Scott Hammond: So-

Matt Beard: So we had access to go, like, I mean, me and a, a buddy of mine with our vans, a surf buddy of mine, w- driving our vans down the coast-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Matt Beard: … over the train tracks on this little dirt road to a campsite like 10 feet from the sand-

Scott Hammond: Sweet

Matt Beard: … with nobody in sight-

Scott Hammond: Where no one has gone before

Matt Beard: … for miles. Well, someone else was camped there-

Scott Hammond: For decades, yeah

Matt Beard: … 'cause the guy that, that, that we had, but-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Matt Beard: … just that's a rare bird right there being able-

Scott Hammond: That is rare

Matt Beard: … to do that. And, um, so I have, like, 15 paintings of Vandenberg that are not on my site 'cause they're all sitting half finished in my studio-

Scott Hammond: Ah

Matt Beard: … while I'm trying to figure out how to, uh, gracefully complete this midlife crisis of mine that has had me-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … not working hardly at all.

Matt Beard: And, uh-

Scott Hammond: Let's ta- let's talk about that. Tell us about your midlife crisis.

Matt Beard: I mean, I don't know if it's a midlife crisis.

Scott Hammond: What are your top-

Matt Beard: No, and it's very-

Scott Hammond: … three takeaways from your-

Matt Beard: But the fact is I'm 49, and so when I tell people, like, they go, "Oh, well, that sounds about right 'cause you're 49," or, you know.

Matt Beard: But, um,

Matt Beard: um, no, I, 'cause art, I was full, full speed ahead just doing this art thing.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Matt Beard: I had my head down, and-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Matt Beard: … or I wasn't seeing my wife. I wasn't seeing my kids, my family the way I should. I was just trying to work, and I was just trying to get

Matt Beard: away-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Matt Beard: … really from a lot of what wasn't comfortable, and what wasn't comfortable is that my marriage wasn't working-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … as it should. Um, I wasn't dealing with things as I needed to.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And, um, my wife wanted counseling.

Matt Beard: And so-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Matt Beard: … she said, it sure hurt when she said, um, she's like, "I think we need counseling." And in the past, it a- had always kind of been, like, this threat. Like, "If you don't get your act together, you need counseling" to… I was like, I knew I was kind of a train wreck, but I thought she-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … you know, I thought she loved me anyway, and that's-

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … it was this, I had this whole-

Scott Hammond: You need, you need counseling is-

Matt Beard: I had this-

Scott Hammond: … those comes with a wedding.

Matt Beard: I, I had this great, like, it was like a cool country song, this romantic idea of, like, I could be this sloppy wreck, and she's still, she's this angel-

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … but she loves me, and how cool is that?

Matt Beard: But for her-

Scott Hammond: Isn't that poetic?

Matt Beard: … she's over there just suffocating, and I'm like, "I'm taking off. I'm gonna go paint. I'm doing this stuff," and-

Scott Hammond: She's sucking it up, yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And, um, and I just wasn't seeing what was going on. So when she said, "We need counseling," she said, "'Cause I need to figure out how to live with you."

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Matt Beard: It wasn't how to… She wasn't trying to change me.

Scott Hammond: Change you, yeah.

Matt Beard: She was trying to live with me, and that ma- that made me kind of go, "Well,

Matt Beard: what's-"

Scott Hammond: So what's-

Matt Beard: "… what is going on there?"

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And, um, so I kind of did some self-reflection, and I, like, it's funny 'cause I mentioned that, like, that encounter with

Matt Beard: God at 21.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And, like, we had just started the counseling. It wasn't really, we weren't deep in it, but, um, uh, this one night we were reading, we were reading through Genesis

Matt Beard: where, um,

Matt Beard: uh, Jacob, you know, Jacob has, he's the one with Jacob's ladder, the, the, um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … he has the vision of the angels of God ascending and descending on this ladder

Matt Beard: from heaven.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Sure.

Matt Beard: And, um, that was his first, uh, encounter with God. And later, way later, after he goes through a bunch of stuff and, you know-

Scott Hammond: Crazy stuff

Matt Beard: … yeah, he has a wild life, but he, way later in life, he goes back to that place and builds an altar there where he had that first encounter with God. And I thought, "Gosh, I haven't really…" Like, when I, when I was 21, had that encounter, I w- I was stoned. It was my 21st birthday. We're sitting at a table out to eat at, um, Live from New York Pizza in McKinleyville, which has burned down since then. But, um-

Scott Hammond: Delicious back in the day.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah.

Matt Beard: There was 12 of us there, and I'm sitting there in the middle of the… Well, 12 and me, and I'm sitting there in the middle of these guys and going-

Scott Hammond: The apostles

Matt Beard: … this is like The Last Supper.

Scott Hammond: Wait.

Matt Beard: And, you know, I mean, when you're stoned, that's not a fun thought.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: That was, that was heavy. So I went home, and, and I, I, I- so I got this, "What is going on?" I was like-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Matt Beard: … "Jesus." So I pull down a Bible, and I'm looking at it, and it's just a- the last page of, uh, Revelation had been torn out, but it was put on the first page of the Book of Matthew, and I'm just looking at my name-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Matt Beard: … and going, "Matthew." And it was like-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Matt Beard: … there was a presence in that name. Like, it was, like-

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Matt Beard: And I'm like, I- there's this… I don't have, I don't have words to explain this experience of this.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Matt Beard: But the next day, every- like, anxieties were gone. Okay, so what I did, 'cause I felt like, this, this is kind of, like, crazy, and I th- was thinking-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Love it

Matt Beard: … this, this may, this might not be okay.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: This might be that I'm losing my mind, and I might be one of those stories of

Matt Beard: people-

Scott Hammond: At 21

Matt Beard: … people get super stoned, and then they lose their mind, and they think they're Jesus. And next thing you know, like-

Scott Hammond: They're walking around with a white robe

Matt Beard: … like, it's like, "Oh, did you hear what happened to so-and-so?" You know.

Scott Hammond: He's down in La Jolla.

Matt Beard: And I'm going, "This might be my here's what happened to so-and-so moment."

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Matt Beard: And I went and sat in front of a mirror just to see if I looked as crazy as I felt.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Matt Beard: And I, I don't know how to say it, but it was just the, the peace of God was there.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Matt Beard: It was like, this is okay.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: The person that I saw there, I was going, he's gonna be okay.

Scott Hammond: Sweet.

Matt Beard: Like, this is… And, and I just didn't have… I didn't know what- where to put that. I didn't know where to put that. So when we read this thing of, uh, Jacob going back to this place, um… 'Cause I'd been pretty discouraged with, with, um, with the church, with my faith, with all of it, 'cause it just seemed like, I don't know, just felt like going through the motions.

Scott Hammond: Career too?

Matt Beard: Um, no. Career was the only thing I had. I was like, I was on fire with my career.

Matt Beard: I loved it.

Scott Hammond: Marriage was kind of not… Yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah, marriage wasn't.

Scott Hammond: Firing on the cylinders.

Matt Beard: No, it wasn't working.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Matt Beard: And so, um, I just said, "You know what? She has, she's saying she wants to figure out how to live with me."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: "I don't know what, I don't know what's going on with me." And I think I kind of

Matt Beard: just had given up on, like, trying to be good enough for anybody. I was just like, "I don't know."

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Matt Beard: "I don't know what's going on."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Um, but that story, he went back to that place, and I thought, "Well-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Matt Beard: … I haven't been back to that place." I, I ha- I had that encounter.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Matt Beard: And I immediately left that place and tried to explain that encounter over here in the church, like you said, like an old wineskin.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: I was trying to explain it, and

Matt Beard: rather than rest in it, rather than go-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Matt Beard: … back to that place, rather, there, rather than say, "Okay, well, God, what are you doing?"

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: Like, what is, where are we… I, I said, "Okay, well, I'll figure it out over here."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And it was a great place to hide from what was really scary, that direct-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Matt Beard: … being available and being, like, in the presence of God as not-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … an idea-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … but as the maker, the other, the one that's not us, the one that is with us but isn't us. Like, that's a frightening thing.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: So I could hide over here in the church.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: And this was kind of a call to go, you know what? Like, he went back to the place where he first encountered. So I said, "I'll just, I don't got nothing to lose now."

Scott Hammond: Did you geographically do that or metaphorically or-

Matt Beard: Uh, metaphorically in the sense of-

Scott Hammond: Practice

Matt Beard: … I, I waited for everybody to go to bed that night.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Matt Beard: And I went and sat in front of a mirror, just like at 21.

Scott Hammond: Wow, cool.

Matt Beard: And I sat there, and it was, um… It was like everything.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Matt Beard: Everything just unpacked, and it was like, I don't know, it just…

Matt Beard: It was like-

Scott Hammond: So God showed up

Matt Beard: … I don't know if you're, like-

Scott Hammond: God showed up again?

Matt Beard: You know, people get weirded out by the, like, Holy Spirit, like, but it just felt like a flood. It just felt like, like-

Scott Hammond: That's good

Matt Beard: … I have never felt so alive, and I knew-

Scott Hammond: I love it

Matt Beard: … I knew that, um,

Matt Beard: that, like, it was gonna be all right, man. God was with me, and he wasn't-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Matt Beard: … he wasn't pouring down fire. He was like, "I love you, man, and you haven't loved yourself."

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Matt Beard: "I've loved you, and you wouldn't love yourself." Like-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Matt Beard: … and I was like, "Whoa, wait," like-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Matt Beard: … "I didn't expect this." And-

Scott Hammond: That's, that's for me right now

Matt Beard: … um-

Scott Hammond: I love it.

Matt Beard: Yeah, so, like, everything-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Matt Beard: … kind of shifted around, and, um, so I knew… You know, Amy and I, we, we, we've been, we've been working through a bunch of stuff, and it's been awesome. It's been the best midlife crisis I've ever had.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Matt Beard: Um, I totally recommend it. No Ferraris.

Matt Beard: No, like-

Scott Hammond: No Jag

Matt Beard: … I got, I got a lot of the lame behavior done, out before the midlife crisis.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Matt Beard: And this one, this one's been good. It's been, um, yeah, just feels like coming home.

Scott Hammond: Well said.

Matt Beard: Um.

Scott Hammond: I love it. I wonder, I… As you were speaking, I wonder how many people have, um, encounters with the living God and then go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," and they deny it, or they do some LSD or smoke some weed or go pursue-

Matt Beard: Right

Scott Hammond: … a, a thing or a pleasure and, and go, "That, that, that wasn't real." That, and it scares them, or they, they're just uncomfortable, and, "I want to deny this encounter I had at Burning Man," or-

Matt Beard: Hmm

Scott Hammond: … in the desert-

Matt Beard: Right

Scott Hammond: … or at Moonstone or w- you know, at home in bed.

Matt Beard: Right.

Scott Hammond: And it's like,

Scott Hammond: and it was God. It is God, still is God, and yet I want to kind of shy away from that because it doesn't fit into my framework-

Matt Beard: Mm

Scott Hammond: … of rational Western-

Matt Beard: Right

Scott Hammond: … uh, uh,

Scott Hammond: theology.

Matt Beard: And we almost, by trying to make God so big that, no, no, no, we can't hear from Him-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … we almost make

Matt Beard: God

Matt Beard: too small.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Matt Beard: Because we're, we're, we're, like, trying to-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Matt Beard: … say, uh, like, we're trying to, like, spell out who…

Matt Beard: But, like, I don't know.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Like, we are here.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: He is, like, "I am that I am." Like, present. Like, there's, it's just, just, God is just such a-… beautiful presence. Like- Yeah

Matt Beard: … it's, I don't know. We, we, we have a lot of ideas that minimize Him by trying to maximize Him, but they- Correct … I don't think they, I don't know. I would think we have a- There's so much more mystery than, uh- I think we have limited narrative, and we- Right … exercise it all the time. I, one, one thing I've discovered is this notion of a, a Jesus walk, and that is go to Patrick's Point, Sumeg Park, take a half day and go for a hike. Mm. And just get quiet. Imagine, imagine getting off the device, folks. It's really weird. Uh, it was locked in the Subaru. Came back, took a nap, had lunch- Yeah … read the word. It was- Mm … it was amazing. That's awesome. And I, I cleared my head enough. Mm. It's a whole thing, Half Day with Jesus. Right. Google it. And really heard- Yeah … some interesting stuff. Right. And the first thing, and I think I shared this with you, the first thing I saw, the first Jesus walk, within 30 seconds, I looked offshore at Patrick's Point, and there's a bald eagle. Mm-hmm. A cool… I mean, you never see bald eagles. No, no, it's- Never, but hardly ever. Yeah, it's, it's a special thing. I'm looking at him going, "Gosh, I wish Jo- Where's my cam- Oh, shuts. It's in the car." Oh, gosh. 'Cause Joni, I saw a bald ea- bald eagle. It was so cool. Did you get a photo? Yeah, no. In my head. I still see it. Can you see it? I see it. Mm. Um- Yeah. Yeah, I, I just think we fail.

Matt Beard: Yeah. We tend to fail at being spiritual, and I don't think it's that hard if you get quiet. Right. Let's start there. I like it. Turn off the devices.

Matt Beard: I like it.

Matt Beard: Shut this and, and slow down and, um- Yeah, mm … center in, and I think it scares the bejeebers- Yeah … out of most people. Yeah. Just listen. Yeah, imagine that, and go do it quietly somewhere. Right. Hey, what's your legacy? What do you, what do you wanna see happen? How are we gonna remember you? What's on the tombstone? Is, is there some artwork on your tombstone? You're the one guy that could have some art, I guess. Well, I don't know. It reminds me, like, you know, putting art on a surfboard. Right. I, I, like, I, I did that- It's sacrilege … some of those little laminates that I did. I put- I had some artwork on some of my boards, and I go, "This is the worst." Really didn't like it. Like, just, even if I liked it, I'm, like, paddling out in the art, and I'm looking at this, like, abomination, this, like- … this is, this is, like, thou shall have no graven image, and here it is. Like, this is- Yeah … this… What can this do? Yeah. Like, I love art, but, like, yeah, you know, you can kinda bring these visions into this place, but to try to bring, like, art about, you know, this beautiful ocean and its movement into the ocean itself, it's just falls flat. And it was just- Yeah, it's counterintuitive. Yeah, so I don't know. A tombstone should just be, like, concrete and moss. Mm-hmm. What are your favorite beaches locally, by the way? Um, oh, They're All My Children. I don't know.

Matt Beard: Yeah. So probably, probably Camel's fun. Yeah. That whole area- On the right day, yeah. Yeah, that's always magical there. Yeah. Yeah. I've become jaded in my older years now. My f- Mm-hmm. Because y- you know, in the '90s, you'd do, like, even the… I remember, you know, it's like, hate, I hate s- the way this sounds, but just hit me. It is. You can't even park when it's good anymore. Right. You're just… And that didn't used to be like that. Yeah. You know? Even up, especially up here, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, um- Hmm … I don't know. But yeah, I, you know, lately, I, and I, I just, I like, um, you know, small, small days, small ocean, terrible waves, but if I'm alone, then it's easy. Mm-hmm. I like it easy. Sounds good. This is not a great place to like easy waves. No. So I don't, I don't surf much these days. That's okay. Yeah. Um- Seems like Crescent City would be the lo- um, what's it called, Long Beach? The Crescent Beach. South Beach. Yeah. Yeah. They would have a lot of small- That's fun. That's fun. Yeah, we usually get out, we go up there every summer, get a couple days in with the kids. Mm-hmm. Uh, 'cause the, it's where the kids like to get in the water. Yeah. Yeah, that's always fun. Did you ever know Rin Knoll, the surf shru- shop guy? Yeah, um- Or his dad … um, I did artwork for them, for their, the, the, they had a little longboard contest for years. Right. I, they stopped it. I think they might have done it again. I'm not, I don't recall. Maybe. I think he sold the shop, if I'm not mistaken. But, but yeah. Yeah, I got to do art for them and- You ever meet Greg, the old man? I did. I met him in San Diego- Oh, that's funny … at a surfboard show, and, uh, it was super awkward. Like, I, I brought this m- this mural that I did for this, um, this shaper down in Orange County, and, um, they were doing the Sacred Craft, the, uh, surfboard trade show.

Matt Beard: Hmm. And I showed it to the guy, Scott Bass, that runs that, and he was like, "Dude," 'cause it was, like, all about the, the act of creation of a surfboard, and I was like, "Dude, he has this show called Sacred Craft, and this- Hmm … this piece of art looks like it could be a poster for that show." So he's like, "Dude, that's rad. Just bring it down, and I'll find a place for it." So I was like, "Cool, I've got a entry into this show. This'll be fun." So he set me up, like, right outside the restrooms. Huh. I'm like, "Well, I don't care. It's a spot, and I'm meeting people and having-" Here comes Greg. It was a super fun show, and Greg comes out, and I was like, "That's Greg Knoll." Yeah. And he's walk- and, like, 'cause I was, like, facing the exit. Yeah. And I'm like, "Man, I just wanna shake your hand." And he's like, "Well, awkward." Oh, and he's already weird anyway. It's like, and it's, like, the wet hand of- Ugh. Oh … it's like he just washed his hand. Oh. And I was like, "It's-" A baby dino. I'm, I'm going with it. You're gonna go with the wipe. Yeah, but it was like, it was- So- Yeah, it's not- … so for those that don't know, Greg Knoll was one of the first guys to conquer some big waves. Yeah. He- He's a pioneer. He's a legend … pioneer, legend, a neat guy, and now f- have friends in, uh, in Gaski that know him. He's a fisherman, kind of a, a loner. Yeah. Has a boat, and he just does– he goes to shows, and I, I'm sure that's how he makes money. He gets paid to come and sign autographs- Yeah … and shake wet hands. It was awkward. That was like 2008. That was a ways back, but. So as we go, I always ask two questions. Number, and I, sometimes I, I hit Bethany with this right out of the gate, so I'll just wait on you. Number one, who are you? And number two, what do you want?

Scott Hammond: You got time to think about it. I'll, I'll, I'll kill a minute with my, uh-

Matt Beard: Even with those questions-

Scott Hammond: … reusable bottle

Matt Beard: … what was, what was the question when I, when I came by for lunch and you're

Matt Beard: like, "What are, tr- what was, what's your three words of advi- what are the-

Scott Hammond: Top three takeaways.

Matt Beard: Top three takeaways-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … from, like, your entire life.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, so-

Matt Beard: And I was like, "Who asks these questions?"

Scott Hammond: You know, no one really knows this, so I'll just look at Nick and say, so i- in my office, Scott Hammond State Farm, downtown Eureka, which I never, ever mention on the podcast-

Matt Beard: Are you plugging with your bottle?

Scott Hammond: We, we have a lot of guests over the last 10 years, just rando friends, family-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … clients, and, and I don't hit, you know, strangers too hard with that, but… And we'll, we'll be gathered around for a standup meeting and, "So hey, how you doing, Matt? What's your top three takeaways in life? Go ahead. Tell us what they are." And you know, it's funny, a lot of people who are very shy will just kind of come in and nail it, just like-

Matt Beard: Okay

Scott Hammond: … sling, just slay it.

Matt Beard: Okay.

Scott Hammond: And other people that are just big mouths like me and blah, blah, the blah, blah

Scott Hammond: people-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … um, uh, and they, it just throws them. They get, they kinda, "Well, um, can I pass?" I go,

Scott Hammond: "No." "Okay, uh, love people, love God, and, uh-"

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … you know, reuse and recycle." You know, something, they'll throw out something.

Matt Beard: Right. Right.

Scott Hammond: So, um, I don't remember your top three takeaways. I think they were good, though.

Matt Beard: I think it was like, yeah, lo- love people, love God, and-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Matt Beard: … don't, don't dip your brush in your beer-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … if you're painting.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: That was-

Scott Hammond: That, yeah, that was good.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I like that.

Matt Beard: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Great.

Matt Beard: But it was, uh, it w- I mean, it w- you know, it was seeing people, like seeing people.

Scott Hammond: Being present.

Matt Beard: Like, you cannot… That's my, um… When you get down to what a relationship is between two people-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … um, it can be we can see people as others or we can see people as,

Matt Beard: um, kinda, I don't wanna say objects in the sense of, like, objectification, but like-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … um, not as a mystery but as a set of known quantities of what-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Matt Beard: … like here's what they represent.

Matt Beard: Here's what-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Matt Beard: … here's the pluses, minuses, here's what I can gain, and all this-

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … transactional thing.

Scott Hammond: The other side of the church, Jim Wilder says that transactional brain-

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … versus connection and-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and eye contact-

Matt Beard: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and the gaze.

Matt Beard: Relational is allowing a person to be a mystery-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Matt Beard: … where all you can do-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … is say, "I'd like to get to know you."

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Matt Beard: And as soon as you say, "I know you," you onl- you only know these constructs that you have.

Scott Hammond: Or that I've let you have.

Matt Beard: You have to let-

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Yeah, you have to let the other be a mystery. And, and so I relate that with, with this, like, coming back into, um, the presence of God, just realizing, like, all my life I called it a relationship, but it was a relationship built around an idea of a relationship-

Scott Hammond: Ah

Matt Beard: … instead of letting God truly be

Matt Beard: other.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: A mystery that I'm, I can put myself here and say, "I, here I am."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: But who you are, it's not up to what I understand.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Matt Beard: And realizing once you kinda, like, step into that… And this is, this, I mean, the, you know, we have, like, what, Good Friday, or Easter week and all that, right?

Matt Beard: Like-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Sure.

Matt Beard: That is the… I don't know if people get this, but, like, the whole gospel idea going to step into the presence of God, we have this thing where we're like, that's a frightening thing. I always was-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … like, felt like I'm, I can't, I'm not, I'm a-

Scott Hammond: Can't do it.

Matt Beard: So that's all the, you know, the cross, this whole thing, we have all this religiosity ideas ab- about what it is, and we have scripture, and there's so much written, there's so much about it, but it's,

Matt Beard: it's,

Matt Beard: it's okay.

Matt Beard: He's done.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: Like, God did something to say that that door is open.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: Like, you don't have to be-

Scott Hammond: Good

Matt Beard: … good enough. You don't gotta straighten anything out. Your wife can say, "I gotta figure out how to live with you. You're a train wreck." And you say, "What? I don't have to, like, figure this out first?"

Scott Hammond: Right.

Matt Beard: Just, just go and say-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Matt Beard: … "God, who are you and who am I and what are, what do we do?" And that door is open, and that-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Matt Beard: So that was my takeaway is just going, gosh, when you just let the other be the other-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … and not all your ideas-

Scott Hammond: Right

Matt Beard: … then you can, you can know God. And you can also know others. Like, that's the template for every relationship. And if all your relationships are based on, like, I've got them figured out, and this, and my wife, this is what she can do for me, and this is what-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Matt Beard: … everybody, well, your relationship with God's gonna look like that too, and you're-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Matt Beard: … you're just gonna have a relationship with a bunch of ideas.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Matt Beard: But if you say, "I don't know you, but I'd love to get to know you," that's when it can be a beautiful, everything opens up into a really beautiful place, so.

Scott Hammond: Super well said.

Matt Beard: That was my, um, attempt when I stepped into your office.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Matt Beard: And don't dip-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Matt Beard: … your paintbrush in your beer.

Scott Hammond: Um, I'll share something with you and we'll, we'll go.

Matt Beard: Okay.

Scott Hammond: On my Jesus walk, uh, last time, I, I'm not a, I'm, I'm, I'm an okay writer. I have a book-

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … and whatever, but-

Matt Beard: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … um, I got a poem that'll be a song, and it's called A Good Heart Goes a Long Way.

Matt Beard: Hmm.

Scott Hammond: I think you got a great heart. Thanks for being here.

Matt Beard: Thanks, Scott.

Scott Hammond: All right. Have a great day.

Matt Beard: Appreciate it.

Scott Hammond: Thanks, man.