Todd White on Going From SpongeBob to High Art

Dude I remember when you lost your job at Nickelodeon. We were in the parking lot of John Jocks. And this is like, what year was that? Um, that had been, you know what it had been, 98? Yeah. 98 because I had a house, I just bought a townhome in Valencia. Yeah, and we were talking, you're like fuck, I don't know what to do. Like I'm thinking, you know, but just like, just, you know, working on my art. I remember that conversation, man. And then I remember like years later, you're bawling out of control in your arts and galleries. And I had a friend and I went over his house and he had one of your fucking paintings above his kitchen table. I was like, holy shit, that's Todd White's painting. He's like, you know that guy? I go, I do jujitsu with him. I'm like, wow, he's really talented. It was like one of those cocktail party paintings. I remember thinking, this is nuts, man. I'm at someone else's house and Todd White's painting is above his fucking kitchen table. It was wild. But I was telling you the other day, or just earlier today rather, that, sure, the restaurant out here, I go in, had no idea. I just go in, me and my wife around date night, we walk in and I'm like, this fucking Todd White's paintings are everywhere. Yeah, thank you. It's, well, your style is so distinctive. You know, I can see your, like, either someone's ripping you off or it's you. So like when I walked in there, I'm like, I'm 99% sure this is Todd White or some Todd White copier. So I had 13 years in animation. I came out of high school. I got a job at Warner Brothers as a production assistant on the first season of Tiny Tunes. But what I did is I just, I looked at every super talented artist, every draftsman and I would ask questions and I was drawing every day. I had no social life and they would give me such great advice. So I looked at it, that's my college because I didn't go to school. My mom was a painter. So I grew up in a painting household. Her mom was as well. And I just looked at it as, I'm going to educate myself through, you know, the hard work and the grind. And before I knew it, I was just around some of the most talented artists in the industry and they were showing me techniques and way to put life into character and a way to give a drawing life, which is the hardest thing, by the way. I look at a lot of paintings and they may be technically great, but there's no life. They're dead looking. The eyes are dead. It's a dead looking painting. And so I learned through super talented artists to teach me how to put that kind of personality and life into the drawing and then translate that into the painting. And I was always obsessed with the Rat Pack and Sinatra and Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. And I just, I would, I had VHS tapes of them at the summit and everything. I used to watch them all the time and try to- They looked like they were having so much fun. God, men were men and women were dames and they had the drinks and the cigarettes and they were blowing smoke in each other's face and they weren't worried about masks. It was just amazing time. Women were dames. I loved it. Dames is such a great word. So I just kind of, I wanted to capture that in painting and I wanted to kind of bring some of that timelessness back. And I was really good with marker work, marker color comps in animation, because I quickly after that, I became a character designer. So I spent the next 10 years in animation designing characters for shows and I ended on SpongeBob. And that was like Steve Hillenburg, a lot of my friends from a previous show said, Hey, we're going over to Nickelodeon. They got this new show. They're working on some pilot SpongeBob and they need a character guy. And I met with Steven and he said, he gave me marine biology books. He's like, here make these characters. And I went home- A marine biology book. Yeah, he was a marine biologist. Really? He went to CalArts. He wasn't the best draftsman, but he had good ideas. And he was a really cool dude and a surfer. So why marine biology? Was he just- Because it was all about underwater life. I don't know if you've ever seen the show. Well, I've seen it a few times with my kids. I never really paid attention. It's just like- I didn't know it was underwater. Yeah. It's all fish life. Bubble Guppies is underwater. I don't know what that is. I actually can't stand watching- You don't watch that with your kids? I don't. The kids have so many shows going on and they're all so horrible to watch. So I don't stare at any of them. Yeah. Bubble Guppies was my daughter's favorite show for like two years. Your style, go to his website and pull up some of the images of it. Are they all like this? Do you do other kinds of styles or is it most of your work like cocktail party? I view my work as it's all personality and relatable. So in my mind, I'm not painting art for your furniture or your living room. I'm not painting something you want to put in your living room. I'm painting something that you want that you identify with. And I think a lot of people- What do you mean by that? Like if it's not for the living room, where is it you identify with? Yeah, it's wherever you identify. Put it where you identify. See yourself in it. You see yourself. You see your boys. Weekend at Vegas that time you had the greatest time ever. The women had girls night out and they see their new stuff. Can you go to Instagram at all? No? That's going to have my newest stuff. That's going to have my newest stuff. Cartoonish. Oh, okay. I hate that word. What? Cartoonish. What's a good word? Character. Character. But no one's going to know what you're saying. I know. I know. So there you go. There's some new stuff right there. That's like the foxes. And you know, so I always want to represent someone's life. I want them to see their life in it. I want them to see their personality in there. Can I go back to that picture again? The- Chasing foxes. The blonde, the like from the left hand side, the third one, she looks like a bitch. Oh, good. Because in a group of four- She looks like the mean one. In a group of four, that's what you're going to have. Fuck him. Everyone has their own attitude. Everyone has their own attitude. Everyone has their own personality. Like out of those three? You know why she gets everything she wants, doesn't she? I like the girl on the far left. The one on the white, that's my kind of girl. There you go. She's soft. Smiling. She seems like she's happy. She's soft. That one, you got to work for that one that's holding that wine glass too low. She's just too much work. What do we like? We like the thrill of the hunt, not the thrill of the kill. No! I like nice people. I get my thrills in other places. I don't want them in relationships. A lot of people, they're like for conflict and relationships. I just look for nice people, man. I like the white. I like that one. Yeah, you got lucky. I did too. I like the one on the white. That's my kind of girl. But that one, that one with the low wine glass, I tell my friends, bro, please, please don't bring her to the house. Look at that. Sugar shack. Those three, I have no problem with any of those girls. They're fine. Those are fun girls. But I think the one that Jamie's got the cursor over, she's going to be the most problems. She's going to overdose at your house. She's going to want- But see, what are we doing? We're having conversations about stupid art, right? Yeah. So, art should be a conversation piece. The one on the far right, she's going to fuck your friends. My friends. You're going to go over vacation. My clients. She's going to text your friends. Can you help me move? And then she's going to fuck all your friends. Yeah, so it should be a conversation piece. You should have it in an area where friends come over and they go, what's going on here? And it represents you. It represents your personality. They say, well, this is how we love our life. But I know you got to a point where you were really in demand. I remember I was talking to Eddie about it and he was like, God, Todd is so busy. Like he's like constantly working. Does it ever get to a point where it seemed like labor or like it does a dope Hendrix shirt, son? What you got there? Hidden by your gay bandana. I'm sorry. It's not COVID. It's more like a ranchers bandana. There you go. We're in Texas. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's gay to have sequins in or something. I like that. That's dope shirt. You can have it. Really? I'll give it to you. I have the greatest fans of any artist period living. They're just awesome people and they show up in droves. And we were doing a show one time and this client in England came up and he goes, and I said, dude, that's the greatest jacket I've ever seen. And he goes, you like it? I go, yeah. And he goes, it's yours. And I go, I'm not going to take your jacket. In my mind, I go, I'm taking his jacket. He goes, no, man, try it on. If it fits you, it's yours. And I thought, that's a fair. Fair. I try it on. I'm like, oh, but. Is it perfect? He goes, I fix it. He goes, it's yours. Oh, thank you. And the cool thing is about 10 years later, I was in Toronto doing a show and a kid came up, an artist kid, and he showed me his work briefly, which I find a bit hard to look at people's work in the middle of my show. And I'm like, oh, that's awesome, dude. And he goes, man, that's a great jacket. And I go, he was about my size. I go, hey, see if this fits you. And he fit him. And I go, it's yours. Wow. He was like over the moon. I can't believe it. And then other people were like, dude, I just bought fucking a $60,000 painting. You gave him a jacket? Hey, come on, man. You just got to go with the flow. Pay forward. You got to go with the flow.