“My cousin Dan has reached the end of a journey with cancer and to celebrate his truly special life, a last-minute gathering was planned at the Griffith Park helipad in Los Angeles, the place where Dan proposed to his lovely and powerful wife, Nicole, almost three years ago. The night before, Nicole reached out to artist and author Dallas Clayton to see if he might be able to leave some love for Dan at the helipad. She doesn’t know Dallas – she used the public email address listed on his Instagram page. It was less than 12 hours notice, so, to say the least, it felt like a Hail Mary pass. She made sure her email outlined the unique and emotional ways that Dallas’s love-beaming murals and sweet street art have been an instrumental part of her and Dan’s relationship – especially as Dan’s cancer progressed over the last year. So even if Dallas couldn’t make it to the celebration, he’d know how much his work meant to them.
The following morning, Dan and Nicole were met by a sweatshirt-clad Dallas who had spent the morning covering the asphalt helipad with bright, love-radiating drawings and messages scrawled in colorful chalk. It was a remarkable sight, something neither of them had expected, and it made an already magical celebration that much more special.