Early in his career Dine was a pioneer of Happenings, which were amalgamations of sculptural and theatrical events that included performance, costume, sound, light, and sculptural environments. Dine integrated painting into the events full-time in 1960 and his involvement in the Happenings of the late 1950s contributed to newfound intuitive, improvisational processes that are evident in Hit My Summer, Hard and Fast. Dine depicts a stick puncturing a canvas heart, which “bleeds” with paint, bringing the painting off the wall and suggesting the remains of a ritualistic performance.