As you might've heard, Justin "Scrappers" Morrison recently stepped down from his post as the Mercury's art director. And you may be wondering why he decided to leave The Greatest Job An Artist Could Ask For. The answer? Scrappers hit the dusty trail in pursuit of Awesome.

Awesome started when clothing company Hurley asked local artist and Grass Hut owner Bwana Spoons to put together an exhibit in their Costa Mesa gallery, )( Space. Spoons extended the invitation to Scrappers, Martin Ontiveros, and Skinner. The four met in California and spent a solid week in the gallery, collaborating on both mural and installation works. They made Awesome.

"I’ve been around long enough to know that a chance like this will only come once, so I took full advantage of the opportunity," Scrappers writes of Awesome. "I quit my job at the Portland Mercury, and started freelancing at Pinball and Egg until the time came to fly to Hurley’s headquarters in Costa Mesa with my best art buddies to see what we could make together."

As it turns out, Scrappers rolled the dice to great results. Awesome, which opened June 11, was a success by all accounts. Coming together to form the most spacially-transformative work I've seen from the artists involved, immersive, psychedelic murals covered the walls, while a skate-ready, volcano-shaped ramp drooled its Day-Glo lava, sharing floor space with a gigantic sea monster and other sculptural elements. Check out the above video for highlights from the build-out and opening.

Aside from Awesome, Scrappers has seen more good fortune. In the coming weeks, he'll be taking over as the art director of Mauitime, an alt weekly in sunny Hawaii. Wish him luck in his Maui adventures! (And keep up with his various doings over at Scrapperstown.)