If you want to put a name to this bluestninja, try Randy Antin. If not, then don't.

Who am I? I'm a combination of at least three of the following, in no particular order:

- Artist
- Writer
- Traveler
- Music junkie
- Street sticker campaign fan
- Donkey and pony show fan
- Big supporter of love, creation, DIY, self-expression, beauty, and drunkenness
- Someone who takes himself very seriously and doesn't. Sometimes at the same time

More serious stats, you want?

I'm currently 32 and live in San Francisco, which I have called home since 1997. I grew up down the 5 in Los Angeles. I used to drive down there quite often but then realized that it was much faster to fly. Most of the time.

I spent 4 years in Ann Arbor, Michigan before moving to Prague for a bit and then settling, apparently, in this odd coastal city.

What? You want a better story than that. Ok, fine. Here is how I became an "Artist."

I used to be a writer. When I was 20, I was working as a clerk at a discount store in Ann Arbor where I used to sell a lot of cigarettes. One of our jobs was to break down the cartons of cigarettes after stocking the shelves, and then flatten the cardboard for recycling. Underneath the main counter, I found a bag of partially dried out colored pens. When the day would get slow at the store, I would pull out the flattened cardboard and dried out pens and trace the colors around each other until all the white space was gone. I kept writing after this but from then on, I pretty much became a colorist.

I moved to Prague after graduating college to live out the bohemian existence for a little while, which turned out to be a little more difficult than I expected, especially for someone moving from sunny Southern California to a place where I only saw the sun five times in three months. After running out of money and not even Amnesty International letting me volunteer, I spent what little money I had left at a little art store in Stare Mesto, buying some canvas panels, few tubes of paint, and a couple paintbrushes. I spent the last month there painting as brightly as I could in my dark room in my flat, only taking time out to be with my girlfriend, play with the pomeranian who lived in the flat with the nice couple that rent the room to us, and try to sell my paintings on the Charles Bridge (which the police didn't appreciate very much.)

I moved to San Francisco in 1997 and painted in my apartment, where the small space and my two cats created a slightly confining atmosphere. But I fell in love with this city, and what was only supposed to be a temporary move now appears to be a little more permanent.

I've worked in five different studios in San Francisco since 2001, including above a carpet store, under a furniture store, in a friend's garage, in an old brewery, and now out of my own garage. While I make the occasional t-shirt, postcard, and magnet/button, I focus mostly on oil paintings and needlepoint. My style tends to change fairly often, as this technology age has destroyed my ability to focus for too long and I have to remain interested in what I do.

I show around the Bay Area primarily and have sold more than 50 pieces over the past 4 years. My work is currently in fine collections around the world, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, Oakland, Reno, Detroit, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Richmond, London, and Prague.