Name: RD “Randy” Riccoboni

Age: 47

Self definition: Artist /painter/ author/ entrepreneur/ visionary

Where were you at 9 A.M. last Sunday morning? Working out at the gym before heading in to my art studio

What person has influenced you more than any other, and how? My paternal grandmother. When I was a pre-schooler she would give me paper, crayons, pens, pencils, finger paint, art books and always encouraged me to create. I knew the difference between mauve and brown before I was 4-years-old.

When don’t you feel equal? Seeing too many talented folks striving for mediocrity

Where were you last Wednesday at noon? Organizing my first show for my new art studio and gallery in Old Town State Historic Park

When was the last time you felt proud? I was at a recent art opening, and the featured artist told me they became an artist because I had inspired them to create art years ago after seeing a book on my art Rainbow Nation: Paintings from the Gay Community.

If there was a defining moment in your life, what was it? There was the time one of my paintings went to the White House, another was meeting artist Paul Cadmus in 1996, but I would have to say as an artist, the first time I saw a David Hockney art show at The Yale University Art Gallery in the 1970s, being a young teenager coming to terms with his sexuality, and seeing this exhibit showcasing Hockney’s homoerotic artwork. Seeing this show on display and hanging in a world class art museum, suddenly I knew that there was nothing wrong with the way I felt inside, and also I would be an artist too. Art is that powerful. Twenty years later almost to the day my book Rainbow Nation: Paintings from the Gay Community was published, and I was having a book signing right there in that very same building at Yale. Now young people were coming up to me and expressing how my art moved them. Talk about coming full circle!

Where were you at 10 P.M. last Friday night? At home, laughing on the phone with my best friend

What is your most immediate goal? The opening of my new art gallery and studio this October in conjunction with the release of my new art book on San Diego paintings

When do you feel total joy? When I see friends going for what they want and succeed