Exclusive Interview By Happenings

Todd White, who was an animator on 'SpongeBob SquarePants,' will have a show at the Hyatt Regency on Saturday.

He hangs out with celebrities and his artwork hangs predominantly 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 6pm, White will be joined by staff at The Gallery Huntington Beach, handing out customized caricature martini glasses to guests who purchase his giclée 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." the gallery co-owner 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 '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 that 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 gentleman, 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 of art for this era. When people think of art in our times, I want to be the one they're thinking of."

Lofty goals for a man who started out 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 the gallery co-owner, 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 it is," she posits, "or is it the art making the artist who he is?"