Todd Claydon

Todd Darrell Claydon (born June 16th, 1963), a stipple artist best known for his work with Mötley Crüe as well as his work on Pierre Trudeau, Bill Clinton & Pope John Paul II.
Notable Accomplishments

===== "TRUDEAU" =====
In 2004 Todd Claydon completed what was to be one of his first widely received and very public pieces, "Trudeau". He was referred to The Trudeau Foundation by ex Ontario Premier Bill Davis where he presented this piece to Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre Trudeau. The piece quickly gained recognition as one of the finer stipple portraits ever to be done, and along with that gained the artist a reputation of being one of the leading stipple artists of our generation.
===== "SKYLAR NEIL" =====
Having gained worldwide recognition for this piece, the artist found himself in contact with Alan Koenig, then personal manager of Vince Neil (singer for Mötley Crüe). He was asked to do of portrait of Vince’s daughter Skylar Neil, who had died at an early age 10 years before. The artist is qouted as saying this was one of the hardest pieces he had ever done simply because of the story behind this little girl. It was presented to Vince at The Skylar Neil Celebrity Classic. A charity drive fundraiser Vince Neil had been involved in since his daughter’s death with the money going towards The Skylar Neil Foundation.
===== "MÖTLEY CRÜE" =====
This led the artist into a series of work, pieces and charity fundraising with Mötley Crüe, starting with “Mötley”.
“Mötley’s” original was auctioned by Vince in Las Vegas at The Joint raising generous amounts of money for the charity. Subsequent Ltd Edition prints were also donated to raise even more money for the charity.
===== "VINCE", "SIXX", "TOMMY" =====
Following this were the piece’s “Sixx”, “Vince” & “Tommy” all again raising generous amounts of money for various charities while at the same time establishing Todd Claydon as perhaps one of the greatest portrait artists to emerge from the 20th century. His work had paid off & was now in high demand and very well known around the world.
In the winter of 2009 / 2010, ready to do the final installment of Motley, Todd Claydon discovered he had slowly been being poisoned over time from a wrongly done root canal 5 years previous. The poison had been building gradually in his system and was now starting to take its toll on his health. Also, during this time his shoulder had frozen for 4 months and then, just as it was starting to heal, he fell down a rockface in Toronto’s Rouge Valley and cracked the same arm.

The poisoning had done severe damage to his health and around the teeth where it had originated from, which led to a succession of painful surgeries to correct.
As he was going through this in the March of 2010,the artist made a trip to Montreal with girlfriend Dianne Thordarson. He was to meet up with Vince Neil from Motley Crue there and also visit the Trudeau Foundation. During this trip while walking back to the hotel from the Bell Centre, the artist had an absolute deja vu from their surroundings and turned to Dianne explaining that somehow in a recent dream he had been there before. It was a dream he had awoken from and could only say at the time to Dianne… “someone’s trying to tell me something”.
It was the same weekend the extent of the blood poisoning was discovered as well. It turned out the root canal had actually been what is regarded in Canada as a banned practice known as root end surgery.
Upon returning to Toronto, the schedule was to start work on Mick Mars and complete the set of Motley Crue, which at this point had become years of work. Instead of commencing on Mick Mars, he dropped the work on finishing the series of Motley Crue for the time being and listened to that voice that had said… “someone’s trying to tell me something”.
===== "POPE JOHN PAUL II" =====
He began his work on Pope John Paul II in the spring of 2010. A portrait that was to take him a year to complete and to date the best piece of artwork he has ever produced.
Pope John Paul II has been called a masterpiece by church officials.
Currently (2011) he is involved in Claydon Fine Arts Inc..

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