BIOGRAPHY

Hmmmm. Let's see. Where to begin? I was born June 28, 1974 to Wayne and Jane Goad in Dayton, Ohio (famous for the birthplace of aviation and that kid that got caned in Thailand a few years back). As a youngin' I remember always being fascinated with color. Give me a piece of colored plastic and I could have stared at it for days, red especially. I would rotate it in front of my face and let the sunlight shine through and then hold it up to my eye so I could look at the world. Yep, it was all about simple pleasures back then, which are kind of hard to find now. It didn't take much to make me happy - a pad of paper, a set of crayons, maybe a Star Wars figure or two to draw, and solitude. I never really liked people around while I drew, actually still don't. I always felt it was such a personal thing and would lose my concentration when I felt staring eyes. So, I'd lock myself in my room and draw, read comic books, and play with my toys. I never really had any friends and kept to myself.

In high school I excelled in art classes, but pretty much sucked in everything else, partly because I just wasn't interested, but mostly because I rarely took notes and would instead fill my spirals with drawing after drawing. In essence, every class was art class. My senior year in high school I started looking into colleges and narrowed it down to The University of Cincinnati, The Columbus College of Art & Design, and The Rhode Island School of Design. I checked out UC, even went to an orientation, but when it came down to it, I wanted a more specialized education, rather than an all-around. I looked into Rhode Island a little bit, but it made more sense for me to go to CCAD because (a.) it was close, and (b.) I was guaranteed a $12,000 scholarship through my high school art program. My parents set up a portfolio review with the college and I managed to snag a $16,000 tuition scholarship and prepared to begin school in the fall of 1992. Going to college was scary and exciting at the same time. It was scary because I had never lived anywhere but Dayton growing up, and never near a city, but exciting because I would finally be around people that I would have at least one thing in common with and who didn't know me from Adam. Kind of like a rebirth so to speak. Now I have to admit, when I got to college I had a fairly big head. It's hard not to, when people told me all growing up that I was the greatest artist they had ever seen, would become famous, and make a shitload of money. As I'm writing this, I can almost hear the sound of a balloon filling with helium. Ok, so I get to art school, think I'm the shiznitz, and basically get the wind knocked out of me (sound of balloon releasing air). The other students there were phenomenal and at first it was very overwhelming. Almost, to the point of where I seriously was questioning my future as an artist.

But I hung in there, managed to keep my grades above the 2.0 mark so I wouldn't lose my scholarship, and absorbed as much information as I could. For the first time I was exposed to color theory, different painting techniques, study of light and shadow, and a bunch of other things. I would definitely recommend people going to art school. I know that many people are proud to refer to themselves as "self-taught," like that makes them better than a person who has gone to school, but I just feel that it is a shame when an artist fails to meet his full potential, when school can be helpful in unlocking it. While in my senior year at CCAD, I met a guy named Ian MacConnell, who worked at a tattoo studio in Columbus named Stained Skin. Through him, I met the owner, Durb Morrison, and it wasn't long before I was doing a lot of the advertising for the shop. A flyer here, an ad for the newspaper there, and occasionally a T-shirt design. Since graduating from college in May of 1997, I've been floating between Columbus and Dayton, trying to make a name for myself as an illustrator. I was doing the nine to five deals for the past few years, stocking shelves, working in a furniture warehouse, a CD packaging company, and an art manufacturing corporation, but due to an incident at my last job (read: I was fired for being "incompatible"), as of December am primarily freelancing. Kind of humbling when you get fired from a company with art in the title. Basically Optic Nerve (the devil) had no use for an illustrator and just needed guinea pigs willing to be locked in a warehouse, breathe denatured alcohol all day and sand little wooden letters. Still bitter? Well, a little. But it's all worked out for the better.

Recently my flash art has been picked up by a company in Sarasota, Florida named Inkubus Flash and I'm hoping that this will open up things for me and get my artwork out to the world. I am also going to be contributing to a local humor newspaper in Columbus, called Tastes Like Chicken, doing spot illustrations, and starting in June or July, a monthly cartoon which will allow me to exorcise any demons in my head and get a little revenge on those who have done me wrong. Call it therapy. Honestly, it's been awhile since I've been truly excited about creating artwork, especially with all the money invested in school and the weight of the need to succeed. I think things are looking good now though. It's nice to know that people honestly take an interest in the things I do and if I could have a super power, it would be to look at my work through their eyes. Well, either that or X-ray vision.

Oh, and super speed would be nice, too.

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