BIOGRAPHY
*Todji is seeking artist representation. Referrals are appreciated.
I strive to cultivate myself as a work of art. My sculptures are created from a lifetime journey of self-discovery. I’ve traveled and worked around the world. I’ve built monumental bronze sculptures in Asia, I lived in Brazil for two years and Peru for one year where I became fluent in Portuguese and Spanish. I was married to a Brazilian woman for ten years, and divorced during the pandemic. I’ve had sculpture studios in New York City, Portland Oregon, San Francisco, Brooklyn & Rio de Janeiro.
I’ve been neighbors to the wealthy and the impoverished. I believe that with privilege comes responsibility to uplift others, and that true poverty is poverty of the spirit. I was poisoned and almost died at a Festival of 13 Brazilian Amazonian Indigenous tribes in the deep Amazon in 2011. My sculpture career has suffered greatly because my recovery is ongoing. I’ve participated in hundreds of sculpture exhibitions across the US and abroad. Museums have yet to express interest in my work, but the public and other artists have been extremely supportive.
I’ve practiced Yoga, Capoeira and Brazilian percussion for 30 years and I’ve played drums in the streets of Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval for tens of thousands of people. I am a musician and I’ve played guitar, bass or percussion in many bands over the years, including opening for Angelique Kidjo. I’ve walked the red carpet in a tux with movie stars when my movie was an official selection at the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals, and my photo was opposite Michael Jackson in a French film magazine when I was 26. I survived 2 years of a different life threatening illness during the economic crash of 2008, resulting in bankruptcy as a self-employed artist. I’ve earned a little wisdom after too many near death encounters which I strive to put into my art to share hope with others.
I am the son of an Architect and Interior Designer, which is the foundation of my artistic value to make the world a more beautiful place for all people through creativity. There are many professional artists in my immediate and extended family: Photographers, painters, performing musicians, music teachers and dancers, and I am blessed that they are the finest of people.
My sculptures are known across North America, South America and Asia for their sublime expression, archetypal form, and signature style with exaggerated proportions in a forced perspective. My collaborative short animated films were the official selections at seventeen of the world’s top film festivals including the Smithsonian Institution, Cannes, Sundance and Annecy, with broadcast on television across Europe, Africa, Japan and HBO.
At age 24 I received an internship on the stop-motion animated film “James and the Giant Peach”, which began my decade long career as a stop-motion animator and puppet fabricator, working with talents such as Tim Burton, Eddie Murphy, and Dan Castalaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson.
My best times as an artist were exhibiting at Burning Man for nine consecutive years from 2001-2009, creating art for fantastic community art events in Portland Oregon, exhibiting at Art Basel Miami, The New Orleans Jazz Festival, The Sundance Film Festival, and many other art and music festivals and charity events. My sculptures can currently be seen in sculpture parks, public spaces, corporate and private collections on at least 4 continents. “Thank You Water” is my masterpiece to date, and I wish to do more sculpture commissions of this caliber.
I began sculpting as a child and I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in studio art from the University of California Santa Barbara. I later studied traditional figurative sculpture at the New York Academy of Art and taught at the Art Institute of Portland. Thank you for your interest in my work. It is patronage that keeps me working as an artist, and for this I am deeply grateful!
