We were lucky to catch up with Todd Goodman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Todd, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I am a self-taught artist, my educational process was trial and error. But I find it hard to look at my “errors” as errors, as those errors more often than not turn into something interesting and or beautiful. My approach to making mistakes is to find opportunities to learn and grow. Since I didn’t go to art school, I’ve never had anyone tell me I’ve done something wrong. In my mind, the concept of creating art wrong is absurd. Someone may not like it, but that doesn’t make it wrong.
Art was always a part of my life, however, I didn’t consider myself an artist and I wasn’t creating art consistently until I was 30 years old. I’m incredibly grateful for the life and experiences I lived before I became an artist. I’m not one to have regrets about decisions I’ve made, and I feel life’s timing is what it is, generally out of my control. I try my best to stay grateful that life has offered me so many opportunities for creative inspiration throughout my life to draw from to make me the artist that I am today.
That all being said, if I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t necessarily change much, I’d like to have taken a drawing class or two when I was in college.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I grew up in a very music/art-oriented family and community in Schenectady, New York, so my primary artistic influence has always been music. I’ve been playing drums and percussion for over 30 years.
Other than playing and listening to a ton of music growing up, I was a constant doodler. I left NY to attend the University of Vermont, where I earned a BS in Environmental Studies, then moved to Colorado to be a snowboard bum, but after a couple of years went back to school to earn a Master’s degree in International Development from the University of Denver. Then I moved to Santa Monica in 2007 to work for a nonprofit, which lasted almost two years when the global financial collapse left me out of a job at the end of 2008. After six months of looking for a job, I found myself working with a friend on Venice Beach, making and selling jewelry and art.
Thanks to this experience on the Venice Boardwalk, I developed my artistic style and survived the Great Recession. By 2012, drawing inspiration from an eclectic life of music, sports and travel, and tossed up into a healthy salad of global politics, I was able to develop my own unique style. It’s a colorful painting style that’s funky but clean, straight but twisted. It’s life in vibrant colors, spaces, and forms, which I’ve called Psychedelic Realism.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
There are two main driving forces in my creative journey: 1. Have fun doing whatever is in my capacity to make the world a better place for my daughter.
2. Inspire others to join me in creating a happier, healthier, more peaceful, just, and sustainable world.
Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
I’ve been in the process of learning about NFTs for the past few years, and am invested in multiple crypto projects. I am a strong believer in the tech behind NFTs, recognize the importance they will play in our future, and believe that they will be incredibly beneficial for creatives and artists like myself. I have been involved with two NFT projects based on my own artwork, but have not gone to market or minted any NFTs as of yet. Timing is crucial, and by the time my projects were ready to mint, the markets had crashed. Further, I don’t think the current or past markets were truly accessible, or profitable, for artists like myself. In my opinion, the NFT art scene is mostly based on hype, celebrity, hyper-speculation, and frankly a lot of bullshit. Many of the “successful” projects are complete garbage, artistically speaking. However, I believe the tech is legitimate and the future. So, I’ll be patiently waiting for the right time to enter that space with my art. I have a few project ideas that I think will be perfect for this space in the future.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.TGarts.com and www.1GoodHombre.com
- Instagram: @toddgoodmanarts and @1goodhombre
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/toddgoodmanarts
- Twitter: @toddgoodmanarts