Interview by Jimon

1-Where were you born and where do you currently live and create? I was born in New Jersey but my parents moved to Los Angeles when I was very young.  Where I currently live and create.

2-How would you describe Todd Gray?  Todd Gray is very free spirited and creative by nature.  I have also worked very hard to learn to be happy on a daily basis. Living without a safety net is not for everyone, but it seems to be for me and I am grateful and still appreciate that I am able to go through life in this way.  Mostly I am grateful that I still enjoy what I do on a daily basis (which happens to be art).

3-What was your first experience with art as a kid?  My first experience that I can remember was my mother getting me a set of ink pens and a psychedelic coloring book to fill in.  The colors and the imagery were all I needed to imprint a lifetime devotion to both.  In fact, I recently came across a book my mother had me fill in as a six year year old.  It had questions like what is your favorite food, what do you want to be in the future…When it came to what was my favorite color, I said ‘psychedelic’.  I thought that was poignant, funny and accurate.

4-Have you ever come across a piece of art that you could not or did not want to stop looking at?  Where would I start with this?  Hundreds.  Thousands?  But one in particular was a piece called ‘The Third Circle’ by Al Held.  Actually, Al Held is my art guru and there are many many images by him that I have stared at and dissected for countless hours.  I learned very much about art from studying his work.

5-You paint in 3D how did this start?  For some reason, I have always been attracted to clean lines, bold color and geometry in art.  I do not exactly know how or why where my love of 3D developed other than it is all I have ever done from the starting gate.  I recently painted a large mural at the World Trade Center and when I got home (this was literally two days ago), I saw a painting on my bedroom wall that I had painted in 1988.  It had all the same elements as the enormous mural I had just created (and I was not aware of this).  My inspiration had come from myself, and I was a bit amazed to see that I was painting in a style that was an unbroken invisible chain right back to the beginning.  I do not know what the meaning of this is….or the importance, but there is a certain satisfaction from seeing that you are getting your best inspiration from yourself and that the things I am painting today are samplings of a forgotten past that had good bones. Very good bones.  I like this.  You asked about 3D.  I started painting 3 dimensionally on a 2 dimensional surface.  I always figured it was inevitable that my work would expand off the canvas into 3d sculptural form.  Yet you would always know that both were done by the same artist.

6-What was the First job you ever held?  I have been working continuously since I was a teenager.  But for most of this time, I have never felt like I have had a ‘job’.  Still don’t.  But, if you want to know what my very first job was, it was cleaning dog runs in my neighborhood.  My first ‘legitimate’ job was when I was in high school and I worked making furniture at a cabinet shop called Wambold Marker.

7-If you had to watch one movie on repeat for eternity, what would it be?  I’ll take a pass on this question as the reality of this seems like it would be pure hell.  Also, there are far too many movies that I love.  A movie I have seen a number of times recently though was Woody Allens’ Midnight in Paris.  Love it.

8-Where/when do you get most inspired?  Inspiration comes from many things in life.  So I would say life in general. And trying to stay  happy.  For me, inspiration comes by being aware and as open to the universe as possible.  It comes from beauty, and music, and friends, and conversation, and laughter, and art, and love and pain and joy and heartbreak and awe and….

9-First thing you think/do in the morning? And Last thing at night?  First thing I do in the morning is take a shower and meditate in my meditation room.  My spiritual practice is a very important part of my life and a very important discipline for me.  Last thing?  Generally, I’m on Instagram before nodding off.  Possibly read a few pages of a spiritual book (Yogananda.)

10-What is your least favorite part of the day?  I don’t have a least favorite part of the day.

11-If you weren’t an artist, what would you have liked to be?  Rock star.  That’s an Easy one.  I’ve been a drummer in a band for the last 11 years.

12-If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table?  Al Held, Roy Lichtenstein and Picasso.  We could easily expand this list to 33.

13-Name three things you can’t live without in your studio?  Music, assistants, open and clean space.

14-Are you present on social media if so how would someone find you?  I have a lot to say about this topic but I’ll keep it brief.  Yes, I am present on social media [toddgray_studios on Instagram]. And I believe that to ignore social media (as an artist) would be foolish in this day and age.  I do not want to be here in five years and say I should have started in social media 7 years ago.  I do believe that to ignore it, is to do so at your peril. As it is the future.  I owned a large candy business for 20 years.  I was in 170 shopping malls in 26 states.  I was able to sell it but it was on a downward trajectory for about 10 years.  Why?  Amazon.  Easy answer.  What will be the state of art galleries in five years?   To not be asking yourself these questions now, is to be Blockbuster, when they had the opportunity to purchase Netflix.  That may be an obscure analogy to some, but where is Blockbuster today and where is Netflix.  How’s Amazon doing these days?  Or for that matter, hard copy art  magazines?  I’m just saying that there are new paradigms quickly happening and old ways of doing business (ie art galleries) will have to change or become like the record industry.  Seems basic to me.  So yes, I am present on social media.  See you out there.