Red Truck Road Trip - WEST Coast Team

Michael (Mikey) Rottman, 27, Painter.
Mikey Rottman holds two degrees from Stonehill College in Massachusetts, a BA in Fine Arts and a BS in Finance. His subsequent work experiences have reflected these diverse interests, as he’s held jobs as a loan officer, mutual fund portfolio trader and dance company tour coordinator and production manager. He’s also cooked professionally “on and off” for the last nine years. But for Mikey, being an artist is a way of life, and as he says “painting has been the one constant thing in my life that has grown and evolved with me naturally.” Mikey’s paintings have been exhibited in group and solo shows in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Brad Wilson, 23, Filmmaker.
Brad Wilson graduated in May 2007 from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York with a BFA from the College of Art, Architecture and Planning and a BA from the College of Arts and Sciences. His writing, directing and producing has already won awards at film festivals including Best Undergraduate Comedy 2006 and The Founder’s Award 2004 at the Ivy Film Festival. He has done several summer film-related internships, and in 2006 he used a grant from Cornell to shoot his senior thesis film on a road trip across Europe, starting in London and ending in Istanbul. Brad has also done work as a photographer; his photos were published in the Washington Post in a travel section story on spring break in Las Vegas.

Mike Thompson, 25, Photographer.
After graduating from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington in 2006, Mike Thompson returned to his native Bay Area to set up his own business as a freelance photographer and graphic designer. During his time at school Mike worked as a photographer and then a photo editor for the Whitman Pioneer, winning the 2004 and 2005 Robert Hosokawa Award for Photojournalism. He was also the official photographer for Whitman’s Harper Joy Theatre, and continues to pursue theatre photography as a hobby. In 2006 and 2007 Mike has won numerous awards for his photos, and his art has appeared on ABC’s “Nightline” program.