Anthony Ricciardi - From Athlete To Renowned Celebrity Artist

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Welcome back to the Casey Adams Show. Today I am joined by one of my great friends, Anthony Vacciardi. Thanks so much for coming the show, brother.

Thank you. It's great to see you.

Of course. Good to see you as well. I literally, I was just telling Anthony I was flying to Vegas this morning. I saw you're in town. I'm like, we got to do the podcast, so I appreciate you making it happen in a moment's notice. Excited to have you here at the Blue Wire studio.

This is awesome. This is beautiful, by the way. Thank you so much.

Of course.

Always great to see you.

Of course, man. So not only are you an incredible artist, but I've had you on the podcast before. We actually recorded the first one on the call and app, so it's fun to have it in person now. But for people that aren't familiar with your work, I'd love for you to dive into, you know, what inspired you to become an artist and more. So what kind of art do you do for people that may not know for sure?

So I'm a mixed media contemporary artist. A lot of my artwork features pop culture, recognizable imagery, and I have a motif that streams through all my pieces, which is a heart. So really quick background about me. I went to school in Alabama on a baseball scholarship. I'm from Toronto, Canada. And then growing up, no one said, no, become an artist. That's something that's a viable career. So I went into finance, I got a job in finance, went into finance. And during my time in finance, I kept painting. And every night and weekend I would paint, paint, paint, because that was my true passion. Eventually I said like, you know, if I'm ever going to do something crazy like Quit my job in finance to pursue art. I might as well do over young. So about six years ago now, I left that career in finance to pursue art full time. So my art is heavily inspired by my dreams to follow your heart. Trying to inspire. Looking at things around the world that I'm inspired by and creating pieces on that. And then the main goal is to spread happiness and love. That's where the. The heart. The follow your heart comes through in all my pieces.

Love that. So I know I recently saw you up in Toronto. Yeah. And we were talking about this recent mural you did. I forgot where in the world that was. Antigua.

Yeah.

I'd love to dive into that because I know obvious have some incredible pieces of art that people can hang in their homes, but this mural just stood out to me, and I'd love for you to talk about it, just how that opportunity came across your plate, what it was and really what it meant to you to have your art on such a large scale.

Yeah. No, that's awesome. I'm been extremely grateful to do projects and different things like this around the world, but this one is extremely special. A friend of mine, Chris Harding, who owns the Hodges Bay Resort, it's a beautiful resort. It's an incredible resort in Antigua. I had done a couple pieces for his home in Puerto Rico, and we were discussing. He goes, I love murals and I own a resort. Like, we should brainstorm. So I went there. I went there for two days, met with him, got to see the property. Just absolutely stunning. Their art collection is that for that hotel. That resort is one of the best in the whole entire world. Just the art that he has collected. And we saw this big wall. We were walking around the resort. He goes, where do you want to do a mural? I'm like, this. This looks really fun. So we started brainstorming different concepts. Concepts. And we wanted. You know, my concept is, again, following your heart and everything. We said, what can we do? Like, it's literally on the ocean. The boats come in right there. The guests are there. What can we inspire? Continuously inspire people and also create an Instagramable moment. It was actually ranked one of the top three most Instagrammed hotels in the world. Wow. So I want. I wanted to, like, create something that people could not only use as a backdrop, but could inspire. So it was an incredible experience being there and getting to do, and we had to deal with so many different things while creating. It was a huge, huge side of a building. So, you know, there's rain, wind, or salt water coming in there's. A bunch of different fun things and factors that you don't really think about before executing that. But it all worked out and it was really fun.

I. I love to hear that. It's so cool. I'll make sure to link it down below so people can check it out. But you know, I always wonder. There's so many artists out there in the world. I. I know many artists myself, but becoming a. A recognized global artist at scale is. Is not something easy to do. And what would you say is the. I should ask you, what's your advice for an artist getting started when it comes to finding a clientele, getting the art out there and just making it not only a passion, but a viable career?

For sure. No, it's a great question. And I think that it goes. It spans across all creatives. You know, art, music, podcasting. And obviously what it really comes down to is consistent execution. And for me especially, and I know you, you can. You're living proof of this as well. The more we do something, not only do we get better, but the more exposure and more potential opportunities we have for someone to take note. If I did one painting and I, you know, all of a sudden got projects around the world, you're like, whoa, this is crazy. Yeah, that only really happens in music where someone just randomly puts a one song. A one hit wonder is a one hit wonder. That could sort of happen. But then there's always a backstory to how many paint music that he created before or her. Um, so for me, my biggest advice to anyone starting up in the creative field is to do a lot and do it consistently and just keep putting it out in the world because you never know. And we talk, my friends that are here, we were talking about this on the way here. It's all building blocks. Like. Right. The one thing that you do this day didn't change anything. It wasn't life moving, but it adds to this big umbrella and this story of yourself. So never look at a singular moment that you're doing as an artist, like one painting. Look at in the big picture of your life. Like Jesse Itzler, you know, he talks about building your life resume. I love, I love it. It's absolutely.

I was talking about this yesterday with my buddies.

That's all. I believe in it. So actually, so I believe in that. Build your life resume in that. So the actual reason that we're here in Vegas is tomorrow I'm supposed to be running a 50 kilometer ultramarathon in.

The middle of the desert. Kidding.

Was I Was actually inspired by Jesse. And I was just. So two weeks ago, I look up. I look up the toughest races in North America.

Like this weekend, you haven't been training or you have.

Is.

Is. But since two weeks ago or no.

Before, I was already sort of.

Okay.

I wasn't running. Okay. So I. I start running and I feel good. Like, first day I decided I was going to do this. I ran a half marathon. I was like, oh, I feel good. This is this. Love that. And then I kept running and all of a sudden I was getting these numbness in my feet. I ended up getting a bunch of MRIs and my, like, my. I'm having. I have like bulging discs and all this like weird funny stuff.

Wow.

So anyways, I had already everything booked here to come to Vegas and I was like, we're running a 50k. Is my friend Greg, who's actually here with us. He. I'm like, you're running a 50k with me.

Shout out to Greg.

He's like, okay, I'm coming, I'm coming. So we. Literally two days ago, my doctor finally called me back. He's like, listen, you cannot run. Like, your back is not a good way. And I feel healthy and I feel good. I'm in like the best shape I've been in a really long time. But anyways, that's why we're here in Vegas, because of. Go back to the life resume stuff. People ask me like, why are you wasting your time training? Or what do you want to do that for? It's nothing to do with art. Doesn't make any money. Actually paid. I wasted money because I bought the. I paid for the marathon.

Yeah.

And didn't end up.

Yeah.

So it actually cost money, but it built to my personal life resume. And I think that every artist should look at everything they do under that lens. Like, what can I do today? Like tomorrow, the next day. That takes one step closer to whatever that goal you personally want to achieve is.

I love that. Wow, man. I mean, I totally feel you with the, the ultra marathon. I was planning on running a marathon in March and I was doing. I started training, I guess I would say last October to the point where I was doing like half marathons or once or twice a week, like five 8 mile runs, like crushing it. And then one day I did. I was gonna do a 20 mile and I did 17 and my knees just got crushed. And. And it's something where I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go stretch more. Because I knew I wasn't Doing that, a theragun with all that type of stuff, like the little things that I know I could have turned up a notch, I didn't. And, but long story short, I'm gonna run one later this year. And generally for the aspect of it, I just feel good when I complete. Like when I say I want to do 10 miles, as soon as I did that, I was like, okay, I'm gonna get addicted to this. Because it feels so good when you actually accomplish that, whatever it is.

No, I totally agree. Like, I'm not competing. Yeah, I wasn't gonna go. Definitely not to 50k in the middle of the desert.

Wow.

I definitely wasn't going to compete. Even when I ran my marathons and I, I never placed well or anything, it was always like, of course I'm going to be competitive to myself. Yeah, but I'm just trying to finish. I said that I wanted to do this, I set a training goal, I achieved it or not, I still tried. And then I went out and did it. And you, you had to accomplish something. And it's tough to accomplish things in life. So little wins like that are totally awesome. So. Absolutely. And that all stems back into the art side of things. Like, look at that. In any creative entrepreneur career, like you see it with media kids, you see it all different things. When you're doing something, if you keep consistently doing it and push towards something, something special could happen at the end of it.

Yeah, absolutely. When it comes to your background before art, baseball, how did baseball play an impact on your life? And I believe you played professionally. Correct?

I played NCAA Division 1.

Okay, got it. So how did baseball impact your life? And really what was that transition where you transitioned to full time artist?

Yeah. So baseball, I mean, growing up, baseball was, was everything to me. I was, I wanted to be a baseball player. But I think the biggest takeaway from baseball specifically, and then we'll talk about sports as a whole, was for me it was the teamwork, the dedication, the early mornings. Like, it taught me how to be a dedicated, hardworking individual in society. Ignore the sports.

Yeah.

You know, I'm not a big boy. I'm not like, I'm not overly strong, I never threw, I was a pitcher, nevertheless, overly fast. But I worked hard and it got me to where I was, which was a decent level. But all of those traits I now take into my day. Like, I'm happy to wake up at five o' clock and go work out. Yeah, I'm happy to go to work extra long, painting, do whatever I have to do because of the time I put back then. It's. It's a. It's a good segue. I. So I'm actually starting a jewelry line that releases August called Every Heart.

Are you wearing it?

Yeah.

Oh, that's hard.

So. And the whole concept behind it is. So I know I'm obviously, as a man, sports is a given. But the lessons that I learned were so important. We noticed that there's such an incredible inequality in female sports. And my partner, who's who, she was a play for Team Canada rowing and comes from a background of sports. She's incredible. And said, like, I'm talking to her about the inequalities in sports and how women are not funded and they're not given the right opportunity. So I said, why don't we do a jewelry line? Because I love being a creative director. I love being a creative. I can translate my artwork into jewelry that we can then take the funds and fund girls sports and teach people all the lessons that sports gives like that. I know I've lived through not only team sports, but every type of sport and then try to actually build a community and grassroots programming to help girls in sports. So to go to your question, I really. I love that sports. That's what I attribute to sports. My hard work, my dedication, and my. My drive.

I totally get it, man. I mean, I played sports my entire life. Hockey for 10 years, lacrosse, and then sophomore year of high school is playing football. And that's when I got injured in neck brace for six months, almost paralyzed. And like this, you know, that. That same drive, though, I had to find a new outlet, which led to, you know, social media, podcasting, business, and just those same innate qualities of the dedication, the putting in the reps, everything you learn from sports. And it's funny because even like Dave, who I just went on the show, like his background in sports and talking to him about that, it's. It's so interesting to know that anyone who's ever had some level of, you know, like playing in sports has the. How do I want to say it? Like the reciprocation into business and how it translates.

And there's direct correlation, like, you see it in every level. And even if they're not good at something in the business world per se, they're going to work hard to get it.

Yeah.

Or they're going to be 100%. They're going to be creative how to do it. Like, if I. If I wasn't good at a certain thing in baseball, I figured out how to become. Yeah, certain things. So that was the same thing. Learning a new pitch is the same way that I'm going to learn how to pitch my business. Like it's very, very similar.

Who as an artist has inspired you throughout your journey and how do you pull inspiration and put it into your art?

Yeah. So I'm, I'm inspired by so many different creatives. Like the number one creative person that I've looked to the last, you know, five to 10 years now has been Virgil Abloa. And unfortunately he passed away. But his inspiration, what he was able to do with, through different, not only different companies, so creating off white and then becoming the creative director of Louis Vuitton and everything in between, that was something that I really look for because he also had paintings and pieces in the Museum of Chicago and all these different things. So I look to someone like him as a creative director side of things because that's how I really want to create my life is that although I am an artist and I paint every day and I'll never stop that I want to creative direct for brands eventually and be like the.

I was going to ask you, is that an inspiration? Like with Virgil being Louis Vuitton, like that path and transitional, he may prove that it can.

Yeah, it can be done. Yeah. Like Connie has done that as well. He's at a whole different level because of what music did for him. But the mindset is exactly where I want to take this and lead to. So he's definitely been one of the most incredible. Then I have a bunch of artists, you know, the Julian Schnabels, the Basquiats, the Warhols and there's a ton more that have inspired me creatively for pieces. But, but yeah, and then, and then business. I mean, there's an endless list of people that inspire me every. Jesse Isler, Gary V. I heard when I walked in years talking about Gary. But yeah, Gary and all. And all those boys, like they're, they're incredible. And even all the women, Sarah Blakely of the world and all the, all those, they're absolutely incredible.

Absolutely. Outside of art, I want to ask you, you know, what inspires you and what keeps you not only creating, but passionate about what you do. Because I think that in anything in life, just finding out what makes you tick and just continues to make you keep going is so important.

Yeah.

So outside of art itself, like what inspires you and what is that long term goal and vision that you have?

No, it's a great question. Like for me, the root of it all is just being happy. I realized because I was in finance and left, it left a very good paying job to literally make nothing. At the start of art, I realized that money didn't actually bring happiness. You know, money's great and we need it. We need to do things in life. We want to be able to travel to Vegas and do different things. But for me, it was always making sure that what I'm doing in that current moment has continuously made me happy. You know, right now I have a two and a half year old son who's incredible. My wife's amazing and good family and friends. So spending as much time as possible with them is my only, only and forever my only goal. And the only way to do that is by executing the extreme amount of work on the front end. Right. So you know, when I'm. Yeah, when two months down the road I'm busy or I'm swamped and I'm trying to catch up on things, it's because I was lazy two months before or whatever it may be. Right. Or even in the day when my afternoon's really busy or overwhelming, it's because the morning I didn't do anything. I didn't wake up at five, I didn't get myself done. And you don't have to wake up at five. That's an exaggeration. But I didn't get what I needed to get done in the morning. That made my afternoon packed. And if you just compound that through a year, you can have a really happy year. And that's. Yeah, that's my only goal. It's just, just creating the freedom in the individual moments to spend as much time with people that I love.

Absolutely. So you grew up in Canada?

Yeah.

What? When was the first time you traveled.

To the US When, When I was young with my family and I like my dad works in the food industry and traveled around a lot. So we went. We were in the US Quite a bit. But then when I started playing baseball, started playing travel, like at competitive level, at the 13 to 17 year old range, we played competitive baseball, travel baseball. So I was all through the US all the time.

So I think one thing too that I want to talk about is for media kits, my company, for people that are listening that may not be aware. We had our launch party last August and just the story of how you were involved was incredible. So we had this big launch party. It was in L. A. We had Wiz Cleaver come up before him and. And then you did this incredible live art installation. I'd love to hear your thoughts on a, like, doing art live with when people are watching or at an event versus, you know, being in your own creative element. Do you, you know, what does that mean to you when you're doing art live? Because I feel like it's a whole different stage of doing it live. That's the speed, the, you know, trying to have conversations and just managing all of that while trying to put this creative vision together. I was super impressed. And just to see it come to life at the event was so cool to see.

Yeah.

So do you do that a lot?

I, you know, pre Covid you do them like once or twice a month. But now it's been. Events are starting to pick back up full speed, so I'm sure they'll start picking up as well. But painting live at events is always so fun because the experience for the individuals there, seeing a blank canvas come to life slowly as the event goes on, is always so fun. And, and that for me is everything with art. Like, the reaction of someone seeing my painting on the back end of actually looking at it. And is. Is the beauty. Like they're. The awe, the shock, the this. They're like, if they love it or they hate it, whatever it may be, the reaction is everything to me. So doing it in a live event, you get to see it like this. You see it right away, and that's. That's always so fun. So it was such a cool experience that, I mean, that launch party was amazing. Having wiz there and stuff. That's super cool. So that was. That was really, really fun and great. Yeah, I was grateful to be a part of it.

Absolutely. I appreciate you so much for coming out there. It was a great time. When it comes to your journey, if you were to give yourself advice at 18 years old, what would that advice be and why?

It would. It would definitely goes back to what I would tell any artist or any creative is just continue to be consistent. Like, it's. It's really difficult when things aren't going your way. It's really difficult when things are starting out really slow and you don't see results. Sometimes results happen in a week. Sometimes they take three years, Sometimes they take much longer than that. We know stories of entrepreneurs and business people that have taken 15 years to develop their product, and then now it's overnight. So I think the number one thing I would tell myself at 18 was just like, put the work in for the future. For the. For your future. Because there was a situation in which I'm 30 now. I could live another 70 years. Right. That's my, that's my argument. I hope to live to 100.

Yeah.

And there's nothing to say that the next three to five years, I can't set up those next 64, five years myself. And I tell myself that 18, if I knew that at 18, I probably would have worked a little bit harder from 18 to 24. And what I mean by that is just do more, execute more, try more things like just be. Be open to new concepts. Not so single mind, especially at that time. 18 is a really tricky age when you're just graduating, potentially graduating or not in school anymore, and you're like, trying to figure out what you want to do. Do a lot. That's the real answer is do a lot. And that's what I would tell myself.

I love that. And I mean, even just when you're saying that, I'm thinking back, I'm 21 now and turn 22 next month and just, you know, the years pass by so quick and, you know, you hear this all the time. And I. And I'm the first one to, to believe that because I got started on this journey when I was 17, and then from 18, and now I feel like I've lived a decade in terms of the experiences because I've been so consistent about trying new things, taking on opportunities, and just really putting in my all when it comes to what's at hand. I didn't go to college. I moved across the country when I was 18 years old. And just understanding that led me to, you know, put myself in more uncomfortable positions that I would want to. But those moments have helped me grow in. You're living ways.

You were living proof of the concept that I just spoke about. No, literally.

I appreciate that.

It's so impressive. And I mean, you're so young. And yes, what everyone tells you about it flying by quickly. It does, because I remember when I was 21, it wasn't that long ago, but it was.

Yeah.

Nine years is a long time. So I can't wait to see what you do over the next nine years. But on top of that, like, it's living proof that. And you see it, you see it in the moment because you're so present that when you are working hard, when you are executing incredible things do happen, opportunities. I mean, we're in Vegas right now on a podcast. This is like your big, pretty face. It's like, this is super cool, right? Like it. Yeah, it's just awesome.

I have a couple more questions. We wrap up Here. When it comes to art, what does art mean to you?

So art, art in itself is meant to evoke emotions out of. Out of the person that's viewing it. So it can be a print, it could be a sculpture, it can be an original painting. It could be really anything. Street art, like literally on the side of a brick wall. The main concept of art, that means, what it means to me is that it should evoke emotion in the viewer and good or bad and happy or sad, whatever it may be. So art really is a tool to send a message, is a tool to inspire. It's a tool for happiness. That's what how I look at art.

I love that. Very cool. Well, Anthony, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the show today. I know we were both in Vegas and it worked out so perfectly, and I truly enjoyed this conversation.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for coming on. And last thing, where's the best place for everyone to not only go view your art, but to follow you and stay along for your journey?

Instagram will probably be the best spot. Richardi paints is my Instagram. And then charliepaints.com as well, so love that.

I'll make sure to link it down below, brother.

Beautiful.

Awesome. Well, for everyone that is watching or listening, thank you so much for tuning in and of course, huge shout out to Blue Wire for having us here today. Thank you. I will talk to you guys soon.

Legacy of Monsters An Apple original series. The world is on fire. I decided to do something about it on November 17th. This place, it's not ours. Believe me, the most massive event of the year arrives. If you come with me, will know everything. I promise. Monarch Legacy of monsters streaming November 17th only on Apple TV. Plus.