Exclusive Interview by Heat Magazine

The honor.  The excitement.  The glamor. The anticipation. The hearts full of music and the eyes on the prize.  These are always elements of GRAMMY night, and this year such ephemeral elements have been brought strikingly and vibrantly to visual life in the GRAMMY's annually commissioned work of original art to celebrate the Awards show and the events leading up to it.

This year's piece was created by Los Angeles-based painter Todd White, whose aesthetic blend of late-night chic and slyly absurdist humor is perhaps best summed up as "Rat Pack-meets-Picasso".  Bold colors and characters, a strong sense of closing-tine community, and an ever-present playfulness are hallmarks of White's painting, all of which work together to create images that the artist hopes viewers find both entertaining and engaging.  "Some artists express themselves in a way that they know is going to be difficult to relate to" says White "I don't work that way at all.  I'm expressing myself, but I know that you can relate to it. There's nothing bizarre going on, and nothing academic to explain.  You don't need an art degree to appreciate it.  I love when people look at my paintings and say "That's me and my buddies jamming.  That's us on the weekend after the 18^th hole".  I'm not interested in being 'difficult' I want my work to have a sense of fun and I want my paintings to tell a story".

White's own story has something of the feel of a fairy tale.  He was fresh out of high school, working as a tennis pro coach in Texas ("I wasn't much of a pro" he explains "I was teaching kids and old ladies").  The son of one of his older students worked in the animation department at Warner Bros and happened to catch sight of a sketchbook White had been working on between tennis duties.  White was asked if he would consider a career in animation.  He answered yes, and within weeks he had moved to Los Angeles to being work as an entry-level member of the animation staff for "Tiny Toon Adventures".  White was hungry for as much instruction and critique as he could get from the animation artists around him, and quickly rose to more creative positions. Eventually, he became part of the lead animation team for "SpongeBob SquarePants!" where he specialized in character design. And when a colleague mentioned that White should try his hand at painting, that offhand comment ignited a brand new passion.

"I went from dabbling to becoming obsessed with painting" he says "I was in book stores reading up on everything I could and I spend a lot of time talking to other artists, trying to get information"