White hot artist

Dave Brooks

He hangs out with celebrities and his artwork hangs prominently at

Rodeo Drive studios, but have no doubt about what painter Todd White

is capable of -- this guy could beat you to a bloody pulp in a

handful of seconds.

And the way he talks, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt just

might if you say the wrong thing to him.

“You know what I hate, I hate when people come up to me and tell

me that I’m really lucky,” he said. “When someone says something like

that to me, I just want to punch them in the face.”

As White will tell you, he’s earned his artistic stripes, honing

his skills as an animator for the critically acclaimed “SpongeBob

SquarePants” Nickelodeon animated series, then as a dogged

self-promoter of his new fine art gig.

On Saturday, White is planning to have one of his largest art

openings yet at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa.

Starting around 6 p.m., White will be joined by staff at The Gallery

Huntington Beach, handing out customized caricature martini glasses

to guests who purchase his giclee prints or originals.

White is at a key moment in his young artistic career -- an

optimistic place where he’s got enough ego, talent and marketing

savvy to become an artistic success in the image-conscious enclaves

of Los Angeles hipster culture.

His artwork is the Rat Pack meets Cubism, a two-tone snapshot of

Southern California’s social elite, sipping overpriced martinis,

callously socializing and forever trying to be seen.

“What makes Todd’s work so successful is that people see

themselves in his paintings,” gallery co-owner Mark Burkhardt said.

Whether it’s the shallow conversations enjoyed by the 10

cigarette-clad gadflies in his painting “BAR CODE” or the sultry

swank of the four socialites in “The Drinking Boas,” White has a way

of capturing body language and form in a timeless sense of cool. His

art is marketed to connoisseurs of the good life, willing to fork

over $1,000 a print because his work gives them the sense that they

understand art. They get what he is trying to accomplish.

His art reminds people of their best moments, White said.

“And that’s the funny thing about memory,” he said. “Somehow, the

way we remember things is always better than the way it actually

happened.”

White knows when to be a gentlemen, but off the cuff he is prone

to profanity-laced tirades, hustler sensibilities and an unapologetic

pursuit of commercial success.

He loathes the image of the starving artist, plagued with laziness

and addicted to drugs and self-pretension. Despite his constant

depiction of cigarettes and booze in his work, White said he never

smokes and never touches the bottle. He is prone to 14-hour painting stints. He made his mini-empire, he said, by targeting his audience,

leaving miniatures of his work on expensive sports cars in Beverly

Hills and European imports along Sunset Boulevard.

Now he has his sights on even bigger aspirations.

“I want a chance to expose my art to everyone, whether they like

it or not, I want people to get a chance to see it,” he said.

“Eventually I want to become the symbol or art for this era. When

people think of art in our times, I want to be the one they’re

thinking off.”

Lofty goals for a man who started out at as a humble animator, but

if commercial success is any indication of legacy, White could be on

the right path. He’s already sold more than $40,000 worth of his work

at The Gallery HB and his originals are collected by celebrities

including Vin Diesel and Hugh Hefner.

Success works in strange ways, said gallery co-owner Peggy Howell,

and if White plans to maintain his success, he’ll have to retain what

makes him inspired, and what simply makes him.

“Is it the artist that makes the art what is,” she posits, “or is

it the art making the artist who he is?”