I began my creative and bodywork journey as a young boy when my mother… a classical pianist, harpsichord player, music, and English teacher, ( plus Mensa Society member) began trying to teach me the piano.
But my fingers and brain did not like the keyboard and it was not to my liking plus the piano did not come naturally to me. It was like trying to teach a young athletic gorilla to play the piano. My mom then encouraged me to study the trumpet, baritone, and even the flute in junior high school, but those instruments did not work out either. I stuck with the trumpet the longest because I had a very good female teacher at the time. She was very nice and patient. My mother tried really hard to turn me into a musician. Maybe, if I had been set down in front of a drum set…since I’m ambidextrous (a handball player) as a young boy, I might have been a professional drummer now. But that didn’t happen either. One of these days I still might take up studying the drums (electric drums). Anyway, my mother got me into classical ballet / modern ballet at the Hollywood Dance Studio and I really liked that because it was very physical and challenging, plus, I was usually the only guy in the ballet classes. After studying ballet for five years I finally stopped studying because my friends in junior high school teased me a lot while I was carrying my ballet shoes and clothes at school. I did get an audition at a movie studio to dance in an Elvis Presley movie but I was either too short or too tall, I really don’t remember. As far as my beginnings in fine art, I did take some art classes in junior high school, drawing, and a drafting class but I guess I was never really inspired. As far as other art-related classes in high school, I tried printing class, woodworking, drafting, and ceramics classes, but I really didn’t take to them either. As I remember the teachers were very mediocre. In fact, most but not all of my teachers in public schools were mediocre. I do remember one good teacher in elementary school, Miss Laurence, and a good teacher in High School, Dr. Desmond. Anyway, fortunately for me that did change when I went off to college.
I recall as a child (about 7 or 8 years old) I had a dream that I can still remember to this day, which I can still picture in my mind. My mind works in pictures / is very visual (heavy on the right brain). I was at my grandparent’s house and was sleeping in my grandfather’s big, high, dark wood framed bed, and in the middle of the night, I woke up…at least I thought I was awake. On the white wall in front of the bed was a big rectangle of bright blinking colors…like Pointillism (distinct dots of pure color). There was no image in the dots just beautiful colored dots in a rectangle glittering and sparking on the wall. I guess this was some kind of clue as to where I should go with my life but at the time I didn’t understand the dream at all.
Kind of like this!
I was fortunate and friends with different famous people that I went to in Jr High School and High School with, Bill K. and Rita W. For a short period, in high school, I dated Denise C. and after High School, I moved up to Santa Barbara to go to college with my girlfriend Jayni (who by the way married a very famous comedian and actor). Well, I was having too much fun surfing. I lived for when the surf got good, and checked out the surf every morning at dawn. Back then there were no computers, no internet, no Surfline (we used a weather radio), or Go PROs and for many many years, I skied at least 30 days a season. I started skiing, surfing, and playing outdoor handball in high school. I also played B Football but was too small and as I reflect back on that time in my life I really did not contact sports. I joined the ski club because some of my friends were in the club and all the hot girls were also in the ski club. After high school, I moved up to Santa Barbara, Ca. I moved up there because I visited a friend of mine who was staying in Isla Vista with his brother who went to UCSB. It was December, I was up there for two weeks and the surf was really good. So for me, it was a no-brainer to move to SB. I also started to play indoor handball at GVAC. When that club opened up it was mainly a handball club and gym with over 70 handball players. Eventually, I also tried to qualify for the PRO Handball circuit. I was a good handball player but not that good. To make money, I worked at a service station (pump jockey) and spent a lot of time surfing and with my girlfriend Jayni, kind of going to college classes at SBCC but did not study very much at that time. Eventually, I got a new job cooking fish at a local fish restaurant in Santa Barbara, Ca. the Enterprise Fish Co. I really liked cooking because the restaurant was very busy, had an open kitchen and I got a lot of satisfaction from making hundreds of perfectly cooked meals every evening. At the end of the evening, the cooking staff would sit down and eat fresh fish dinners together. Eventually, I became the kitchen manager at the new Enterprise Fish Co that opened in Santa Monica, Ca. I moved on to other large seafood restaurants as a kitchen manager, Gladstones for FIsh on PCH being the busiest, ( by the way, while I worked at Gladstone’s I got sponsorship for all my expenses for six Pro handball tournaments to try and qualify on the PRO Handball circuit which was a very nice gift from the owner. Eventually, I became a chef. I was also the kitchen manager at Casolo’s Fish House and Eddie’s Diner which were connected together in Marina Del Rey, Ca. Finally, after working in many restaurants as a chef and working long hours for others, I decided to open up a restaurant of my own with a longtime childhood friend who became my business partner. That was a bad decision. (My so-called lifetime friend took money from the business and turned out to be a liar, drug addict, and greedy cheat). I knew that he cheated in high school and college but I was young, naive, and very naturally intrinsically trusting. Life is about life’s lessons and that was a tough one.
Anyway, for our first big project, we partnered up with a big developer, in Huntington Beach, Maguire Partners, at Peter’s Landing to develop a new large seafood restaurant concept. They hired George Lange a restaurant consultant from New York to help us come up with a new fish restaurant concept. We went to New York on a business trip and were chauffeured in a limousine and checked out restaurants with George Lang’s assistant David and even got to visit George Lang at his home. We stayed at the Waldorf Hotel and I found out what a bidet was. We also went out to nightclubs at night. The restaurant and concept were just being finished when my (wonderful) partner had some disputes with our contact (the project manager at Peter’s Landing…John) who worked for the developer at Peter’s Landing site. The developer ended up terminating our contracts and the door locks were changed when we showed up for work one morning. I was in my twenties and it was a tough life lesson. We both were still determined to open a restaurant so I finally found a commercial space in Santa Barbara, Ca. on State St through a realtor friend of mine. We opened and owned that restaurant and nightclub (Hot Spot) for four and a half years in Santa Barbara, Ca. called Carnaval at 634 State St. It was a tough time in my life because I worked 100 hours a week and did not have time for much anything else. After having problems with my (wonderful) partner, and signing some papers that I shouldn’t have done, the restaurant closed and I decided to go back to school. After some soul-searching, I decided to study Fine Art of all things. I guess I can thank my business for that decision because when we remodeled the restaurant I really enjoyed doing all the wall painting with all the different colors that we used for the walls of the nightclub. I did not know how to draw and knew very little about drawing, color, or fine art. I got a job at a local restaurant cooking because I did not want to work long hours as a manager. After working hard at drawing and painting for a few years, I won a scholarship to an Art College in San Francisco. I turned that down and I ended up at the Art Institute of Chicago on a half scholarship and finished with a BFA degree in painting and drawing. I was fortunate to study with some good instructors. I worked part-time in an Italian restaurant in Evanston, IL. cooking. Then, went on to study in a graduate program in Computer Arts in San Francisco. I was in that program for two years and left without graduating because I was borrowing a lot of money and had some very poor instructors. My combined debt was over $70,000.00 at that time. (BTW, I paid that all back, eventually.) To help pay my rent and school expenses I started taking on small graphic design jobs and eventually became a full-time freelance graphic designer for many years. During this period of time in my life I moved back to Santa Barbara and I was working full time, switching different jobs, ( I worked in construction, a print shop, and was a low voltage sub-contractor ( this is when I fell off a roof and dislocated and broke my left femur and was helicoptered to a hospital in Santa Maria, Ca). After my accident, to make money while I was healing up, I worked as a telemarketer at Bargain Network and others where I could sit all day. Plus, had many relationships (time and energy) and did all my sports, and exercised ( enjoyed my physicality) a lot so I did not have much time for making fine art. Some idiots and elitists in Santa Barbara’s art community say you are not an artist unless you make art full-time for 10 years, and show your art in galleries, that’s a bunch of baloney.
During all these years, I had been keeping up some sports to stay healthy and sane, mainly handball, surfing, yoga, running, road biking, and skiing ( but also tried many, many others). All these different sports led to injuries, mainly low back, major sciatic problems, and shoulder, and hip pain issues. It got to the point where I was putting on my wetsuit to go out surfing on a good day and my back would go out spasm with an electric shock, and I was in bed for days. During one back spasm episode, it was so bad, I was in bed for over a month, I could not make my food and had to have my housemate bring me food. I had to ice all day and night and my handball Dr. friend mailed me some pain meds and muscle relaxers. Going to the restroom and taking a shower was very difficult. After seeing many physical therapists, chiropractors, and doctors and not getting any lasting results, I finally turned to massage. After going through a few massage therapists I finally found a guy, a chiropractor, massage therapist, who did Deep Tissue and Neuromuscular Re-education. I’ll call him “Dr. Pain.” Well, after five or six treatments my low back issues improved quite a bit. Each massage session was very intense and painful..but it worked and helped heal my body. So, I started reading some books on deep tissue massage and practicing with my girlfriends and my athletic friends. I got to really know my body and other people’s bodies and what they really needed from massage to keep them healthy and active.
In 2005 I had a very bad fall off a roof while I was working as a low-voltage subcontractor and dislocated and fractured my left femur. That lead to major nerve and muscle damage in my left foot and calf. Then, in 2016 due to my 2005 fall, I had a left full hip replacement and completed 7 months of physical therapy. In 2009, I had had enough of freelance graphic design and some other jobs which I had started to do again. After some soul-searching, I enrolled full-time at BTI (Body Therapy Institute) of Massage in Santa Barbara, Ca. I was fortunate enough to study with John Harris while he was still alive. I now have over 700 hours of certified massage training hours and am a licensed massage therapist (LMT) in Santa Barbara, Goleta, Ca. My massage modalities include Deep Tissue Massage, Barefoot Deep Tissue Massage, Ashiatsu, Shiatsu, Compression Massage, Sports and Injury Massage, Myofascial Release, Trigger Point Massage, Neuromuscular Release, Swedish massage, Relaxing Massage, Reflexology Massage, Chair Massage, Lymphatic Drainage, and some Asian bodywork and others. I also offer Healing Massage for Depression and Anxiety. As soon as I have over 1000 hours of certified massage training I plan to get my national massage license. I now work part-time at a spa and have my own massage practice, Riktr Artistic PRO Massage in Santa Barbara, Ca. located at 827 State St Suite 20. BTW it is also an Art Studio,
I work with a wide variety of massage clients with many different ailments, athletes who want their muscles to perform better with a better range of motion, and clients who simply need relief from their stressful lives. I am personally committed to the care of each of my clients and in each case develop specialized treatments that best meet their needs. I specialize in Sports Therapy, Injury Rehabilitation, Deep Tissue, and the relief of chronic pain patterns. I blend a yoga background with a number of therapeutic techniques from various modalities. My bodywork is often described as a “very deep therapeutic massage with an aggressive/gentle healing approach to the body.”
I have also started making fine art again and have completed over 20 of 30 large mixed-media paintings on the theme of “Drawn to Water” and am also working on a series of paintings with old trucks and landscapes. I also have a few sculpture pieces. My “water paintings” are mixed media acrylic painting that varies in size from three feet to seven feet. When I complete my 30 water-themed paintings, I plan to have my first real art show at a fine art gallery in southern Ca. area. I also plan to build and market my own websites in WordPress for my art (www.ncbart.com) as I have for my massage business. Some of my paintings are on view in my studio when you get your massage.
Currently, I am spending some weekends in L.A. to help out my mother who has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) which is an umbrella term used to describe progressive lung diseases including emphysema, chronic bronchitis, refractory (non-reversible) asthma, and some forms of bronchiectasis. This disease is characterized by increasing breathlessness. Last April my mother and best friend passed away at 93 years old. A very tough loss for me.
Plus – Recently, I came up with an idea for an App, ( a service ) and am involved with two partners, one is a computer engineer and VP of an energy company and the other is a local lawyer. Here’s the story of the idea for the app that came about. I had purchased two tickets for a concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl and I was sposed to go to the concert with my friend John. Well, he canceled so I called all my friends and everybody was busy. So, I placed an ad on Craigslist of all places inviting women to contact me if they wanted to go to the concert. Well, guess what, the response was overwhelming. Oh, and it was a Robert Plant concert. I had so many responses that I picked ten women and set up one-hour appointments over a day to meet each of them. The day started at 9 am and ended at 1030pm. What a day it was, I met the woman at bars, restaurants, and coffee houses, and the last one at 10 30pm at night sitting on a bench at the La Cumbre Mall because she had gotten off work at 10 pm. I was always running late and was rushing around all day to meet all these women. I had never done anything like this before but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do. I look back on that day now and laugh and smile now. I had emailed all the other women and thanked them for their time but I had decided on someone else. So, I ended up picking one woman and we had a great time at the concert. Well, I thought to myself that worked out pretty well so as concerts came up I did the same thing but this time I just picked one woman and we when to the concerts. After the concerts, we might go get some food or chat and some came over to spend the night. I was telling my friend and business partner Miles what had happened and said this might be a good idea for an app. Ticket Mingle (TM) was born. I view TM as a social and dating app that brings people with similar interests together who love the same kind of music or sports. We have contracted with a local company Oniracom to do the minimum viable product (MVP) for the App and then develop the App. and then possibly sell the idea and the app to a large global company. Unfortunately, Covid hit just as we launched the app and got a booth at the Santa Barbara Bowl to promote our app. Interest was good for the initial launch but the app’s functionality ran slow. Recently, in 2023 we secured a contract with AXS, a global ticketing Co, and am contracting with a new AI developer company to fix the functionality of the app. Hopefully, we will launch the app this year. Some experts suggest that in business-to-business transactions an MVP also means saleable: “It’s not an MVP until you sell it. Viable means you can sell it…hopefully things will work out because a lot of money has been put into the app’s development.
Nicola is now available for fine art commissions.
Nicola is also available for massage appointments Monday – Friday and by request, on weekends. Please contact me, TEXT ONLY at (805-637-7482) with your preferred appointment times, and please go ahead and look at my main website ( www.Santabarbarbaradeeptissue.com ) for more information.
updated 4/23
Some photos of charity and community events I’ve been involved in.
Santa Barbara Marathon – December 2010
Summit for Danny Charity
Montecito, CA October 24, 2009
Worked with a few other therapists and provided cool-down chairs, and table massages for athletes competing in the charity.
Photos of Santa Barbara Marathon – December 4-5, 2009
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Photos of the BTI Crew
Santa Barbara Marathon – December 4-5, 2009
The next set of pictures are of the other massage therapists that attended the event and gave up their time for the athletes to give back to the community…a fantastic team of people from BTI. Thanks to Katie, John (the man) Harris, Erick, Sarah (for organizing it all) Ron, James, Gabriela, Candy, Kelly, Erin, Mary, Catherine, Onelia, Pilar, and the other therapists that I probably missed. Also thanks to Fili and James from Nearly Chiropractic.
Photos of Santa Barbara Mothballs Criterium 2010- January 31
Sonia Ross of the Kalyra Women’s Cycling Team, Julie a producer and MT from BTI, and Nicola of Riktr provided free Pre and Post-race massage for the cyclists with all donations going toward Girls Inc. and the Race Across America 2010which Sonia is a big part of. Sonia also teaches at BTI and has her own massage practice. Click on this link from Goodman Photography which has a lot of pictures of the cyclists competing: Echelon Santa Barbara a road bicycling club based in Santa Barbara, California sponsored the event.
Photos of Opening Day at (VHH) Valley Holistic Healing, Buellton, Ca. May 1st, 2010
Recommended Video’s
These videos are all good from Humanity Healing
What does Riktr mean?
Derived from “Off the Richter Scale” meaning that something is excellent, very good, over the top, on the edge, awesome, fantastic, or amazing.
Nice Quotes:
The strongest of all warriors are these two: Time and Patience.– Leo Tolstoi Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.- Napolean Hill If only we arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us that we must always hold to the difficult, then that which now still seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust and find most faithful. – Rilke (Rilke on love another difficulties-translations and Considerations of Rainer Maria Rilke by John J. L. Mood) I tell you that I have a long way to go before I am –where one begins… – Rilke Resolve to be always beginning—to be a beginner. -Rilke ” The harder you work, the luckier you get.” – Gary Player, golfer “Nothing happens until something moves.” Albert Einstein As Dr. Rolf said, “Put the tissue where it should be and then ask for movement.” Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion. – Buddha Once you label me you negate me. -Søren Kierkegaard, I must find a truth that is true for me. –Søren Kierkegaard Click here for: other nice quotes
FYI: Where does Riktr’s healing energy come from: These pictures tell the story!
God’s Universal Energy or Chi, Ki, Ka, Xi, Netter, Ihund, Life Force, Prana, Holy Spirit, Ruhuh, Biomagnetic Energy or whatever you call it, Innate Intelligence starts here.
The Earth is part of the universal energy cycle.
Check out this video called “Healing the Hearts of Humanity” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aKcvgTvIMQ&feature=related
Check out this video called “The Awakening of The Cosmic Heart (The Core Rainbow)” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es-YbHlBKtU&NR=1
The earth captures this Universal magnetic energy in many different ways and stores it.
Magnetic universal energy is stored in the earth’s core and then is released.
The earth unleashes its energy in many different ways.
Keeping your third eye open lets all the magnetic energy flow in and out of your body.
Human beings collect, store, and release/share magnetic energy some more than others.
Check out these links for Healing Sounds!
*Disclaimer: This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified healthcare provider.
Please consult your healthcare provider with any questions or concerns you may have regarding your condition.
The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended as diagnosis, treatment, or prescription of any kind. The decision to use, or not to use, any information is the sole responsibility of the reader. These statements are not expressions of legal opinion relative to the scope of practice, medical diagnosis, or medical advice, nor do they represent an endorsement of any product, company, or specific massage therapy technique, modality, or approach. All trademarks, registered trademarks, brand names, registered brand names, logos, and company logos referenced in this post are the property of their owners.
