CEDRIC THURMAN
Painter.
Published October 1 2023 for Issue No.1
Interview by: Chandler Crump
Photography by: Chandler Crump
Stylist: Cedric A. Thurman and Chandler Crump
CHANDLER CRUMP (CC): “Cedric A. Thurman.” Okay!
CEDRIC A. THURMAN (CT): Yeah. It’s super weird, everyone back home still calls me Alex. Like in Chicago.
CC: I can’t think of you as Cedric.
CT: It’s always going to be like that, some people call me Cedric, some people call me Alex.
CC: Only the real girlies call you Alex.
We laugh over the small table on the edge of the curb at Smor Bakery. I’ve known “Cedric” since I was eight years old, my first trip to Chicago was a rainy one. He played basketball in the backyard as my sister and I played with our new American Girl dolls.
CC: You’re a painter, creative director, a curator. How else would you describe yourself?
CT: I definitely think “Storyteller and Maker”. That’s at the root of all of it. I like making things, taking an idea from pen and paper to something physical, a space [that] people can walk into and experience.
CC: I feel like with art, the whole gallery experience and museum design is a whole other art form. And to be able to create experiences for people… art at the end of the day is an experience for people whether it be visual, or auditory, or physical – do you gravitate towards one or the other? Do you find inspiration from the physical experiences you have or the emotional? What best describes art for you in terms of the human experience?
CT: My art, particularly my paintings, is definitely half-and-half what I'm experiencing and what I'm going through emotionally. Me trying to translate what is going on in my head without using figurative elements. As a photographer, I can take a picture of someone; as a designer and creative director I can create ads or a video that will depict people. But, when it's internal, I want [my art] to be more free and abstract. I definitely feel like [through my] paintings – I don't paint constantly. I need to go live some life and see some places.
CC: Do you feel as if you're gatekeeping yourself from painting more, or at a point where you're content with your painting process and not [feeling] outside pressures?
CT: Content [with] the painting process. It started as a response to working in advertising and being creatively unfulfilled. I have all these ideas and want to make these things. Being creative all day long [with projects that] sometimes [don’t] come to fruition and going months not making [art] – I had to channel that into something else. There are times where I'll be painting every day and then don’t touch a paintbrush for a month. I have more time now, and I have a lot of paintings I had ideas for that I didn't have the time to make before.
CC: Can you tell us more about the upcoming show you have this October? What are people seeing, and what were you feeling when you created it?
CT: The upcoming show is the MVVO Ad Art Show – it’s around a hundred artists and they all work within the advertising and marketing space but also create fine art. My piece “Together Is A Beautiful Place to Be” in particular is the last piece I created in my Harlem studio last year. It’s a big moment of transition, reflecting on a year living in Harlem.Thinking about being with myself and how much I learned and grew. It’s very different from any other piece I created, just red and different tones and shades of that. It’s the only piece I created like that.
CC: With those colors or with that process?
CT: With those colors for sure. The process changes a lot each time, the textures I'm trying to create, but that's the only piece I created with that type of layering technique. There’s a lot of acrylic. I spray painted all of that, layered in some oil paint, sprayed over that again and so that it was like all one color and kind of unearthed a lot of the layers I had covered with the spray paint.
Together Is A Beautiful Place To Be by Cedric A. Thurman
CC: Damn. How long did that take to dry?
CT: It still smells like paint. It's by the door, so if you walk into the apartment it smells like oil paint.
I have a piece in my solo show – it was in my Harlem apartment for almost a year and then I rolled it up and shipped it back to Chicago. I went to get it stretched and the woodshop guy was like “I had blue on my hands when I was stretching it” and that was like a year later.
CC: What are you hoping people will see through the [MVVO Ad Art Show] paintings in terms of their experience viewing – what’s the next step in this piece?
CT:I hope they think it's beautiful and if they don't like it I wanna know why. I want people to have a reaction, one way or the other.
CC: What is beauty to you?
CT: Something you feel, a good feeling. An emotional feeling. I don't really have hopes for someone looking at my piece, just want you to feel whatever you feel.
CC: I mean that’s a lot of pressure, wanting people to feel “the sorrow of death” or “Heaven” etcetera ….
I laugh at my own joke.
CT: Yeah. I don’t create so it ends up in a gallery or for it to sell. I don’t give a fuck if nobody ever buys it. I’m still going to be okay; I made it for me and I like how it looks in my place. That's honestly why the first painting got made in my Harlem studio.
CC: Zero stakes.
CT: Absolutely. I literally was like at an art show and I wanted to buy this piece but it was ten thousand dollars and I definitely could not afford it.
CC: When [art] becomes “fine” art, it's almost like the public loses access to experiencing it and the class divide of who can experience art and who can gaze upon it, [if it’s] good or bad…
CT: I constantly think about that. Good and bad ideas, I’m asked for it all the time, and just because somebody doesn't like it doesnt mean it's bad. And yeah, zero stakes, making stuff for me and what I like and if other people like it too, then I can chill with it. But I'm content if it just sits in my apartment.
CC: The art above my bed is from the streets. Someone didn't like it but art is subjective.
CC: I know you’ve had work exhibited across the country, New York, Chicago, and most recently at the Silver Room of June this year-
CT: -And it got extended to the end of this month.
CC: Period. Can you tell us, in terms of your painting career, where you are at the moment. Is it easier for you to approach a gallery and ask if they can show your work. Are you juggling a day job?
CT: It’s super interesting we’re even having this conversation now. I feel like when I was at Art Basel last year, my friend was asking for some advice. He basically was like you can’t be one foot in or out, you gotta be two feet in. I had never been two feet in with my art career because I was juggling a day job that was pretty rigorous at times, so I never approached a gallery asking to show my work. I’ve met gallerists before and sometimes I don't even follow up because I haven't been thirsty. But now, since I’m not in advertising at the moment, it’s about to be my focus. I’ve been looking into making this an official business and I’ve sold work now to the point where I need to tell the government I’ve made a certain amount of money like” Okay I’ll pay some taxes on this”.
CC: Exactly.
CT: I’m basically at a point where it’s about to be my full time job. It’s very exciting.
CC: I’m so excited to catch you early in your career in the grand scheme of things.
CT: Definitely. I’ve painted some stuff as a kid but my first painting I created as an adult was last year. And to have a solo show already is kind of crazy.
CC: I feel like it’s almost easier when it’s like “Oh hey, I guess I’ll keep doing this”. A natural talent!
CT: I feel just really naturally fucking gifted and know I’m gifted-
CC: To be gifted and Black!
CT: To make a bunch of pieces…the very first large scale abstraction was the first piece to sell in my show.
CC: At the Silver Room – so good.
CT: I made that piece random as fuck. It was hanging in my bedroom.
CC: Did you make the frame too?
CT: No, I got it when I was creative directing a project for Reebok and the week before, my producer needed something to fill the blank wall and I shipped the rolled up canvas and he got it framed.
CC: And then it got sold!
CT: I didn’t plan to put [“From My Heart And My Soul”] in my solo show but the curator saw it and said we should put it in the show.
CC: That’s an omen.
CT: It is. And someone random off the street walked in and bought it [an hour before the show].
CC: People who do that have an eye for talent. It’s an investment for them.
CT: I don’t take someone spending money on my art lightly.
CC: To be able to monetize art as well is such a privilege and such an achievement. That’s all we could ask for, living in a capitalist society and getting paid to do what we want.
CC: If all your paintings had to be burned but one, which painting would you keep and why?
CT: “Love Is The Message” – I think that’s my best painting. I feel like that’s the one I get asked about the most, the one people want to buy the most but it belongs to my mom. My parents invested in me at one point, and I was like “I’m kind of broke but I got this painting for you.”
CC: If you had unlimited funding for a project or decision, how would you use it?
CT: I think I got asked this at my solo show. I would travel the world to gather inspo for the next collection of work. My solo show is still at work and I feel zero pressure to put anything out for a long time. I’ll give y’all one amazing project and you won’t see me and then I’ll pop up ten years later with another banger and I don’t have to worry about money.
CC: Would you stick with canvas?
CT: That’s the thing [with] unlimited funds, I wouldn’t do a painting project. I’m trying to buy my grandfather's house. It’s in Chicago and it’s kind of falling apart but I turned the basement into my studio.
I would buy that house and design the whole place.
CC: That’s so sick. My apartment design, out of ten, what would you rate it? It’s okay if it isn’t a good rating.
CT: I’ll give you a seven [out of ten].
CC: Okay period!
CT: I’m so messy. I have mad Reebok stuff that I wouldn’t step out the crib in, so all my painting clothes are Reebok sweats covered in paint.
CC: Des vêtements avec vérité? Favorite pieces you’re enjoying right now?
CT: Doc Martens are the new edition. These cargo pants from Fried Rice in LES and a black hoodie. And these bead bracelets I made.
Fin
