Check Out Todd Goodman’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Todd Goodman. 

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in Schenectady, New York, in a very musical family and community, so my primary artistic influence has always been music. I started on the piano when I was five and then tried out the violin and saxophone before I finally landed on the drums at 12. 

Other than playing and listening to a ton of music growing up, I have had no formal arts education outside the basic classes in public school. By the end of high school, I had graduated from doodling in my notebook to making abstract drawings on my bedroom walls and those of my friends. But for me, it was always just a way to kill time, or space out after smoking some weed with friends. Following high school, I went on to earn a BS in environmental science, and a master’s degree in international development primarily focused on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and peace process. 

I moved to Santa Monica in 2007 for a nonprofit job. A bit over a year later, at the height of the 2008 financial collapse, I lost my job and found myself on the wrong side of the labor market. After applying to jobs for nearly six months with no luck, I found myself working with a friend on Venice Beach, making and selling jewelry and art on the Venice Boardwalk. 

Thanks to the Venice Boardwalk, I survived the Great Recession and was able scrape enough pennies together every month to stay in Los Angeles. It was that year during which I found and embraced my artistic soul. By 2012, drawing inspiration from an eclectic life of music, sports and travel, tossed up into a healthy salad of global politics and religion, 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 my life in vibrant colors, spaces, and forms, which I’ve defined as Psychedelic Realism. 

I approach my art as a personal reflection, facing the world with my senses open, taking life as it comes, available to a world of random chances and opportunities. Every stroke I make is an opportunity to take a risk, a chance to overcome the doubts and fears of what’s next, and to be joyfully surprised. In life and in art, I like to take it one day at a time, smiling, trying to simply create. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
If life were only a smooth, easy breezy road, it probably wouldn’t be worth living. So of course, I’ve had my ups and downs. Life in LA has never been easy. It’s the least affordable place I’ve ever lived, but absolutely worth struggling to stay in. Like life, it’s the struggle that builds the creative and adventurous character of the city that makes it worth pursuing and living in. 

I basically threw away my entire life’s education and work experience to teach myself how to make and sell art. I went from working within the halls of Harvard and for former President Jimmy Carter, to spending my days alongside struggling artists, drunks, addicts, the homeless, and tourists, lucky to make it home with a few bucks in my pocket. 

It was humbling and profoundly educational. But every day in Los Angeles ends with a radiant and colorful sunset, if you take the time to notice, adding to the daily inspiration that has gotten me to where I am today. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Up until Covid rocked the world in 2020, I was primarily showing my work at my studio gallery in Santa Monica, and at various stores and events in Venice and Santa Monica. For 10 years up until that point, I was painting fairly diverse subject matters on canvas; scenic and iconic landscapes (both local and international), surfing scenes, a handful of politically themed pieces, animal portraits, and portraits of some of my favorite musical artists as well as abstracts. 

During the pandemic, my artistic focus and flow completely changed. Combining the pandemic, the social and political unrest of the George Floyd murder, as well as the 2020 Presidential Election, I was taken from painting canvases in my studio to painting my voice on the streets using stencils and spray paint. In the week following the George Floyd protests, which erupted in front of my studio on Ocean Ave, my artistic alter-ego was released upon the world, and a whole new genre of art came pouring out of me, which is now known around the world as 1GoodHombre. 

The name 1GoodHombre is an English/Spanish mix of my name and was inspired by and as a response to the first political speech Donald Trump gave when he announced his candidacy for President, where he described Mexican and Latin American immigrants as “bad hombres.” Not only am I married to a Latin American immigrant, I love and celebrate the history of Mexican and Latin culture of my adopted home, Los Angeles. Further, this name serves as a gentle reminder to humanity that a better world is possible. All it takes is one person realizing their own potential, to wake up up, be conscious and make decisions every day to be a better person, to do good. It only takes one person, one good hombre, to change the world. 

During the summer of 2020, my new public art was seen throughout Los Angeles, various cities and towns throughout California; San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Napa, Humboldt County, and up through to Eugene, OR. The first recognizable piece I was putting up was a stencil of Donald Trump in a prison outfit. This piece was filmed and used in part three of the Kanye West’s Netflix docuseries. 

However, the pieces that I am most proud of, that were picked up by national and international press, including the Associated Press, Washington Post, Huffington Post, and more, and subsequently printed and shared around the world, were two pieces that I made in response to the war in Ukraine. The first piece I put up around LA was of President Zelenskey, in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag, holding two Uzi’s with the words Fuck Putin written across them. This piece was photographed and published by Getty Images, the Kiev Post, and eventually, I gave an interview to the Associated Press which was published across the country and world. 

Having received mountains of press for that piece, I was offered the opportunity to paint a giant Ukraine-themed mural at the Fameyard on Melrose Ave. which is an iconic graffiti and mural space in the parking lot of Sportie LA. This opportunity came to me the week of the Will Smith Oscar slap, so I used that moment to create a mural portraying Will Smith slapping Vladimir Putin, with the words “Keep Ukraine Out Your Fucking Mouth!!!” This image was set over the Ukrainian Flag and sitting below a landscape view of Kiev on the day it was invaded, and their iconic radio tower was bombed. This piece was quickly picked up by Huffington Post and once again published by news organizations around the world. 

From both pieces, I was able to raise awareness about the war as well as funds to help the victims of the war. For me, having the ability to use my art to help others is what makes it all worthwhile, and is the thing I’m most proud of. 

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
Listen to others, but don’t let other voices dictate what you do. Live, learn and grow. Don’t worry about what others think, always be yourself and stick to your principles. Be patient, with yourself, others, and the world. Finally, just be good to others and yourself. 

Pricing:

• Matted photo prints – 11″x14″ $50
• Giclee Prints on Canvas (various sizes) – 8″x12″ to 40″x60″ – $75-$375
• Original Paintings – $500-$12,000

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TGarts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toddgoodmanarts/ and https://www.instagram.com/1goodhombre/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/toddgoodmanarts
• Other: www.1GoodHombre.com