I met my wife and for the first time I became focused. This was in Meriden, Connecticut. Two towns over from my hometown of Middletown. I was working in a restaurant called Friendly’s. I was dating motorcycle chicks and heavy metal types. I guess it was the Italian in me. Like the movie “My Blue Heaven” from my other home town of San Luis Obispo, California. Around 1986, I started sending my artwork to skateboard companies in hopes of getting recognition. This was from Mrs. Radman’s and mine’s first apartment together. It was a attick apartment in Meriden. I made some real cool art back then. I just kept sending it to every skateboard company I could find in Transworld Skateboarding Magazine. In other words all of them. This was all original art, pencil and ink. I developed this relationship with this lady that owed Z PIG skateboard company. She told me the best place to move to would be southern California near San Diego. I loaded up my old 1 ton van with important stuff like a TV, VCR and such. I also loaded a 1981 Honda Shadow 500. This way when we got there we had two forms of transpiration. The trip across country was quit cool at times. We got a flat in Arizona and these real cool Indians where driving by and helped us out. We went to there house and talked about reservation life. I kept saying how beautiful it was there. It looked like a artist paradise. Maybe it was a preclusion to me becoming a painter. I see allot of that when I look back on my life. In 1987, I moved to California where I got a job working for Tracker Designs. We where so poor back then we had a bed that we found by a dupster we had no furniture. That was cool though I just put some ply wood down and did freestyle tricks in the living roomJ I can still skate by the way and always carry a board in the car.
Tracker Designs was at the time the largest skateboard company in the world, they published Transworld Skateboarding Magazine and the best trucks in the world. They invented OJ skateboard wheels. They sponsored Tony Hawk in the 1980's when only dudes like me knew who he was. Let me tell you this about Tony Hawk from the 1980's. He had a bowl ramp at his home allot of skaters I used to hang with went there. They used to say "That Tony Hawk he is so conceded, one time I cut out in front of him and he said “don't you know I am the greatest skateboarded on earth?" You know what he was right. No one has done more for skateboarding than Tony has. I was a gofer at Tracker, Go for this and go for that. I was in charge of cleaning the office, delivering mail to Transworld, Skaterags, The Tracker team room, The factory where the trucks where made, and the ware house where they kept every thing. In the 1980's while working for Tracker, I when I went off the hook and did so much ding dang artwork. I mailed many copies to skateboard companies originals, like in Connecticut. Tracker Put me on a contract and purchased a bunch of comics from me. I have a bunch from back then. It seemed like that is when I started doing really great stuff, they stopped buying it. To any artist to sell their work is a huge ego booster. I have been doing art like a machine since then. In 2005 I did over 100 rad paintings. Anyway if you talk to me for more than 5 minutes about my art I will mention 250 pages of really cool skateboard comics I have from back then. The past years have been ground breaking for me. I must have about 500 + pieces of art that I did since 1998 that can only be described as the top of it's genre, what ever that may be, and to my enemies or (envy)mies as I call them, I am a no body. I have seen envy many times in college. You work almost a year on a animation and you sit in class and some students refuse to watch it because they are jealous. Envy is awful thing. I want people to journey with me, to let me be their art, instead of envy. To them I say I am the reason artist to day are not discovered. I am the missing link. Without my recognition, there is no recognition. What if that was true? It could be. The quality of my art is on the rise. So stay tuned. I have 1500 + art and comics from 1988-now, that I want to entertain with. All 1500 + pieces of art I have saved all this time are frame worthy. I throw trashy scribbles in the trash. I have a small fraction of my art up on the web. When I lived in California I had moved there for the sk8ing as well as my passion for artwork. In the late 1980's Skateboarding was at a all time high. Gleaming the cube came out I knew and had skated with almost every pro there was back then. I used to have free access to Mike McGuil's skatepark in Carlsbad, California. Mike did the stunts for Gleaming The Cube Movie and Police Academy. My whole life I seem to be surrounded by important people. I should have went to college out of high school, Yale or something in Connecticut or Boston. I was a rebellious kid though. I just wanted to have a good time. I am trying to make up for that now. It is never too late to start over.
Look at it this way, by some miracle I survived to be like some museum piece from the seventy's untouched. I give you the art of the seventy's with out any influence of college in the 1980's. I learned what I know by experience. I have been going to college for 6 years now (since 2001) with a A Average all paid for in cash by me. It is a struggle believe me. But I choose art my way and I hope the whole world will enjoy that someday. That will be the day. My love for art shines in every work of art I do. I can use any medium. Give me any art tool including a computer art and I will blow you away. It has taken years of hard work to arrive at this point. Now I am at a place and time in my life where I would like to get a job as a animator, comic artist or illustrator or anything where I will be developing cool art. One of my favorite teachers said I would make a great art director. College is intense and will take me to that job I want as a graphic artist. Before you go check out the art, and animation's I have created please note: if you are offended by movies like Harry Potter you should understand like Harry Potter and video games like Doom, my art is make believe, pretend meant only to entertain. Oh and I could say drugs are cool, to go along, the truth is I hate drugs and I do not even drink. If you label my art as drug related that is the type of prejudice that ruins lives and ambitions. If you say some one's art looks like it is drug related and they hate drugs, then you are saying they should hate their art. This is my push for all great artists, be a rock to this and forge forward (for you, not to please others) no matter what bigots think or say or use to oppress you with. I do not do comics or animation’s allot or hardly ever. The reason is I have to get paid to do this. When I do a painting I can hang it on my wall and it entertains me every day. It is like food for the eyes where ever I walk in my house. Also it inspires me to do more and better paintings. Comics and animation’s I have to go find then I watch or read it and then what? You can only watch or read something so many times before you are sick of it. Doing this site was a real moral booster to me. I promise you this if I where to start comics again they would be spectacular! I would like to do a modern art comic novel. If any of you all can help me by giving a good word or linking me to a site please do! I want more than any thing to publish the comics I already have. Of course I have all the original art if excellent condition. I always use fine quality paper and bristol board. I have been hanging out in art stores talking to people since the mid 1980's, that is how I got my education. Also around 1988 I attended the San Diego Comic Convention (the largest in the world) I spent the whole weekend there talking to all the venders and sitting with the artist's. That is when the Teenage Ninja Turtle came out and the actual artist drew me a picture for 1 dollar. As you can tell by the way I write I talk allot . I guarantee if you read my comics you will laugh. I would except for all the blood sweat and tears put into it. Good health and prosperity, friends.
How did I end up in McKinney, Texas? Well I was living 2 blocks from the beach in Arroyo Grande, California. One day my wife goes to the library and says to me “I have to join the army to get money for college”. At first I thought she had lost it. We had been married fro 7 years at the time, She was about 30 years old. It took me one week to decide to support her on her decision. We ended up in Killeen, Texas to do her regular army time. She was one of the last 4by4’s. When it came time to do her reserve time we decided to stay in Texas so she could go to college. We looked at all the community colleges in Texas and McKinney had the nicest one. She loved water falls so when I saw the nice water fall at the college I said this must be a sign. It turns out that CCCCD is rated the highest community college in Texas. She got her associate of science, computer science, she is a genius really.
At the end of this semester “2007” I will have 3 certificates and over 120 credits in Collin County Community College, Texas. One certificate in Animation, 1 in Graphic Design, and 1 in Digital Video/Web Design.
Sincerely, Radman
Music by Badly Drawn Boy,