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Rob Lee: Welcome back to the Truth in tHis Art, your source of conversations joining arts, culture, and community. These are stories that matter and I am your host Rob Lee. Today I am very excited to be running it back and welcoming back my next guest, a self-taught artist whose vibrant artwork which is inspired by dance culture, dreamscapes, and experimental vistas reflects his experiences from Chicago to Baltimore.
My guest is a veteran DJ, producer, and an Army veteran in his artwork is inspired by Picasso and Romare Bearden. We first spoke back in 2022 and I am eager to have him back on the podcast to discuss how his vision has evolved. Please welcome back to the program Terry Thompson. Welcome back to the podcast. Thank you Rob, thanks for having me. Thank you for coming back on.
We're here to talk a little bit before we got into this because it's good to reconnect. Yes, it is. Definitely. So for folks tuning in for the first time and shame on them for not listening to the first time. If this is the first time that they're hearing about you, they need that reintroduction. So if you will, could you reintroduce yourself and what's been sparking your creativity lately?
Terry Thompson: Yes, Terry Thompson here, raising from Chicago. Artists, DJs, sometimes a producer, sometimes promoter, depends on whatever hat I'm wearing that day. So for the most part, I am just basically been working on all my artwork as a visual artist in the studio pretty much four or five times a week, four or five hours a day, cranking out whatever comes to mind as far as my creativity from painting, drawing, doing collages. All those things are like, what's on my mind right now.
Rob Lee: So, and then thank you. So in that, when I was thinking through what this season is going to be about, what this theme was going to be about, I was thinking of artist attrition, like following up with folks, catching up with them, especially it's been five years when I started this. So a lot can change in five years. So that's one of the things that's kind of baked into the booking to the question thematically. So, you know, as far as recent work that you've put together, you've been working through, is there a theme that you're returning to or a series of themes that come to mind?
Terry Thompson: Yes, I'm doing some new investigation into a new series of work. And since we last talked, I probably had at least three different series that I've completed. The one we were talking about before was the Alien Conversation series. And that's where I had this motif that are related to dreams and where we have these kind of floating gels and his hands kind of reaching out to it and all these color palettes together in a bright like environment. I kind of expanded that a little bit since the pandemic ended and things like that.
So I created another series called a convoy. So it's more or less these grids like windows and oval shapes that are intertwined with it. I created like 12 paintings in that series. And then now the next thing I'm working on is evolution in that process where I am introducing more of these kind of like, I would say, ropes, veins, kind of squiggly lines that are heavily the black lines that are that are basically taking over the canvas. Within that canvas, there are kind of figurative elements to it. And I'm using a different technique as far as how I'm putting together the actual brushwork on those images. It is a lot different from my other series of works. And I can't wait to really show those to the public because they're not out there yet.
But just just give you a description of what I'm doing right now. It's like these veins or they're like black, heavy black lines that are connected to these figurative things. And I call them like veins because they're really like like going through it in a way where is given those figures kind of energy. So that's something that I am excited about right now. I am working on a presentation that we're going to do at the BMA on April 10th, where we're going to have Franklin Sermon. Sermon is going to come to Baltimore.
He's the director of the Perez Art Museum. He's going to have a conversation with Dr. Leslie Hammons, myself, and Dr. Lawrence Jackson. And we're going to talk about my work and whatever other conversations that come up. It's going to be a very eclectic event where we have music. I'm going to DJ the reception. And you got to get to know a lot more about myself and the work that I've been doing for probably the last like 33 years here. Wow.
Rob Lee: That's good. And definitely I got a follow up question today that you're leading me into as I'm moving questions around. So thank you for having me reorganized though. So in that instance, and being there with sort of the talk to talk about many hats earlier, right? So being there as far as like April 10th goes, being there in the sort of artists hat and the sort of public persona hat sharing elements of your story. And, you know, sometimes talking about your work is different than making your work.
So that's a whole different, you know, sort of identity and presentation. And then also you're doing your music as well. So how do you go through and balance that you touched on earlier, the amount of time you're putting in on the visual art during the course of the week? Talk about the DJing piece as well. Like, that's also something that requires attention and time. Yes.
Terry Thompson: Yeah. The DJ thing does take time. And I don't know how I'm able to balance that thing without like sitting down and really thinking about it. But it's pretty much a natural thing for me to be able to do a lot of multitasking things. So if I got like a couple of hours of spare time that I'm working on instead of sleeping or watching a movie or something like that, I might be like putting together a playlist for a podcast that I'm doing for this radio station that's in the Netherlands.
And it's also in, it's on the air in Spain and Ibiza. And so I produce a show every week of podcasts for that. So I kind of like do them in a bunches. So I do like, I might spend like half a day on a Saturday and just do five hours of nonstop mixing. And, and, and that way if I get tied up with stuff in the studio, in my studio, then I'm not pressured to like try to put together a mix in the last minute or anything like that. So I kind of like playing things out in that respect, kind of like look at what my schedule is going to be like, what's coming up, make sure I'm able to meet those, you know, those deadlines that I've set for myself and also commitments that I have for other people. So I think that definitely having good organizational planning skills is important as probably something that I got for my days in the military and has been able to be at a lot of different things at a lot of different times and in the day. I mean, I remember one of the things they were sending in the army is that basically we did more by nine o'clock than most people did all day.
And it was true because we would get up and do CT run, whatever, do a whole bunch of stuff that is not even like six o'clock in the morning. So, so yeah, having that like discipline to be able to stay focused in the studio to like I don't spend a lot of time like wondering what I'm going to be doing in the studio. When I go to the studio, I'm pretty productive.
I stay on course as far as what I want to do and what I want to accomplish. And I have to, in my planning process is that I might have an idea of, hey, I'm going to make five paintings in the next three weeks or four weeks or whatever. And that might require me to like, you know, make sure that I got everything like stressed and just so and in all lined up and then each paintings are done in different stages and stuff. So while I'm working on one painting is drying, I'm working on the next one. And so by the end of a whole year, I might have like 10 to 15 paintings done because I'm doing them in conjunction with each other. Now planning like preparing for like DJ gigs and stuff. Now I have to say that I have slowed down a lot from like going out there and performing live in front of in front of an audience. And that's good.
I mean, for me right now, because I really, I really needed to put a lot of attention into the series that I'm working on right now and it needs to have a lot of more, I need to have more time to be able to do that. And I work in oil. So oil takes a lot more time to dry than acrylic or watercolors or anything like that. So it's a lot of preparation. There's a lot of planning around that. And then I had a couple of exhibitions that I had to prepare for too. So that was something that I said, okay, well, nobody's nobody's called me to play anywhere.
There's no venues in Baltimore. So I'm good. I can just keep doing my mixes. And if somebody calls me to play, I'm good. I can do that. If it's my schedule, if not, I just have to pass on it.
And I've known to give them names to somebody else that they would be good for a project because I do get requests from people to play all the time. So it makes it as a fit. I mean, it has to fit the right thing where I'm getting the most out of it and the people are getting the most out of it as well.
Rob Lee: That makes sense. And thank you because that kind of leads me into this question around sort of like scheduling the time piece. Because there's time, there's commitments, there's deadlines and their structure that you were talking about there. I know for me, I'm very productive when I'm in an environment that is conducive to it sometimes. I'm in the home studio.
I got all my DVDs in the home studio. I got all my creative, fun stuff here. And I'm like, man, I can read this book procrastinating. When I'm out of town, like if I go down to D.C. and I'm there at the studio, I don't have that. I just write to work very productive, very efficient and to get the stuff done in a way and still feel like I've accomplished something creatively and with merit.
But there's not a lot of wiggle room. It's like, I got two hours to get this thing done. How does that work for you within your environment? Do you try to keep your creative environment set up in a way that I can only, I don't really have the time to procrastinate? How does that work for you and your setup?
Terry Thompson: Well, yeah, I mean, procrastinating. I would say is that I really don't look at it from that perspective. I mean, maybe I like, I look at it from a perspective of resetting, so to speak, is that maybe, you know, taking that time from moving forward with a project allowed me to really, really think about a little bit more. So, yeah, that pretty much is how I take advantage of gaps in production. So, yeah, if I have deadlines, I pretty much stay on top of those, like keep going. But if I have like, idle time, and the idle time is a place where I could just do work, just be doing work, or I could sit back and say, okay, let me think about it a little bit more. And taking that time to think about a little bit more is really good because it gives me the opportunity to look at it from a different angle. Yeah, yeah, I think that's pretty much, yeah. I mean, we all kind of like procrastinate a little bit, and that's the body telling you that you need to slow down.
Rob Lee: Yeah, yeah. That's good. That's good because we have this thing at times that, and I like how you touched on earlier working on, you know, works in different stages, you know what I mean? And I used to do that when I had a network, a podcast, I had five different podcasts that I worked on. So it's like, I got to write questions for this one, let me edit this one, let me book a guest for this one. And, you know, the wheel is always turning. And, you know, I find that, you know, sometimes when it might fall short. So, you know, for instance, I think I was sharing with you before we got started, so the planning and the goals for this season, I try to give myself a range versus getting caught in. All right, I didn't get the 50 done that I promised myself on the onset. Right. I'm going to do 50 to 60, giving myself a bit of grace because I know what I'm doing. I know how long I've been doing it.
Terry Thompson: Right, right. Yeah, I mean, yeah, especially in a professional environment that you're doing with the podcast and things like that, that's the industry itself, you know, you have matched to that. From a visual artist perspective, unless there is a commission that's attached to the project and stuff, I really don't feel that pressure to do the things, you know, in a way that makes it more like a serious commitment. Unless there is something like a, like a, a exhibition that I'm, you know, planning for, and then that things got to be framed, things got to be, you know, make sure it's right and stuff like that. Then, of course, I have to make sure that everything aligned to that. But for the most part, if I go to the studio, I don't have any, I don't have any shows lined up.
I don't have any, you know, commissions lined up. Then it just, it just, it gives me the time to really just operate and do things the way I want, you know, however I want to do it because I don't have any of that kind of like, you know, responsibility at that stage. And, and you can come up with some really creative stuff. Yeah, but when I'm, yeah, when you have a commit, a show coming up and traveling show, you got to make sure if things ready, things dry, things got to be ready.
Ready for hanging, got to be packaged and stuff like that. And then, yeah, it's crazy. Like, like, for instance, like the open studio tour, I try to participate in it every year to make sure that I at least give people the opportunity to see what I'm working on in Baltimore. So prior, like say it's in September, most of the time or October, like, yeah, the first week of October. So I'm basically breaking down my studio in September to clean everything up. So I don't, so people don't come into a studio like a war room. Maybe they want to see how I'm actually doing it. So I leave a little bit of space that's like, okay, this is, this is pretty much how I operate in this little like corner right here. But for the most part, I clean everything up.
It looks like it looks like a storeroom. So, and, and but you have to prepare, I have to prepare for that. So that means that like, I'm taking like four weeks, basically of not doing any production. I'm just doing cleanup and organizing and, and doing the list of all the things that are going to be like showing prices and time to carry around each of the words because he's going to answer questions about them. So, yeah.
Rob Lee: It's almost like back in the day when I would you would set up and I'm at home, parents like companies coming over. So you better.
Terry Thompson: Yeah, yeah, you gotta clean up because like, yeah, they don't know. Yeah, some people might say, well, I'm not going to come in that place. It looks scary.
Rob Lee: And I think I've had a very rarely have folks come to the home studio. I've had a few folks come over here to do some, you know, photography and I know, I know Monica Kegwood came over here to take an image of me that became a painting, which I'm still like in all of and that's awesome. But definitely getting the space tight. I was like, all right, let me make sure these funko pops are lined up in a way. Let me make sure that's a little crooked. I'm going to straighten that up a little bit.
Terry Thompson: Right. Yeah. Yeah, I got to hang the work. Yeah. Yeah. So stuff like that. Definitely plan for if I got it. If I got a DJ key, it's the same thing is that I can't wait till last minute to try to get my set together. So I do a lot of prep work prior to going out on my DJ gig. So it's like, it's like, I might go through.
I don't know. It depends on if I'm doing a four hour set or eight hour set. But I might go through like 500 to a thousand songs just to get those 50 or 100 songs that I'm going to actually play that night. And yeah, so that's like, that's like, I would say give or take.
That's like a good week of work, you know, four hours here, four hours there. And you hear something and you say, oh, yeah, I would like to bring it. I'm like, I'm going to hit him over the head with this.
They haven't heard this in a while. So yeah, so yeah, I like doing that research from a DJ perspective and stuff. A lot of guys like me try to go out and buy, you know, the top 20 songs that are like happening right now and stuff. I try to maybe get like two or three of the top songs and then I'll go find some other stuff that that that still seems like it's current, but actually may something they may not people may have missed. That came out like two years ago.
Rob Lee: I appreciate that. And when it comes to sort of like building out music like and sort of a playlist and sort of like what this set is going to look like. Because, you know, I like like some current stuff, but always and I talk about on occasion that I'm like music don't hit the way that it used to. And I'm saying this at 40, you know, versus, you know, like, yeah, man, back in the, you know, the late 80s, you know, which is music that I'm also checking into. But I like to go into the past, I suppose.
And I look for those things because I'm looking for the connection to what may be happening currently. We have that playing. We have references. We have artists that are slightly different than maybe an artist from a different era.
And so being able to dig into the crates as it were. That always interests me and I put together some playlists. If someone goes to my Spotify, you know, like a bit of everything from Norwegian death metal to jazz, just a bit of everything in there. And stuff isn't necessarily current or contemporary.
Terry Thompson: Yeah, that's I mean, it's good. I mean, I think like when you listen to one genre of music and stuff, you, you, I think you're being able to. You know, you have to go back and say, okay, right. I've been doing, I've been doing jazz for a while. Let me go ahead and hear something else, you know, rock and roll kind of reset your ear. Your ear kind of gets gets a new, a new element because I'm in my studio. I mean, I play health music when I'm working on something that requires me to be fast and to be in rhythm and things like that. But if I'm just doing things that are like, like very like, like peaceful and stuff like that, I might be listening to something like, um, how to sniff or something like, you know, folk music or things like that. And, and you, people wouldn't expect that here to come out of my studio.
Rob Lee: That's cool. And I'll say this, I want to see Patty Smith for the first time last year. So you mentioned it.
Terry Thompson: Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, she's good. Yeah, she's good. Yeah. And I, I mean, I just saw the documentary on Joan Baez. I mean, I've been, you know, a fan of hers as far as since the days of Woodstock command and go to Woodstock with baby, but seeing a film and stuff like that.
And, and then listening to listening to some of her songs or so. Yeah, they kind of reminds me of the time when I was working in Chicago, when I was in high school, and buddy of mine, we got a job with the youth conservation core. And we were working in the nation's nature, nature center, yeah, in like the suburbs of Chicago, we basically were going out there and putting signs on the trees and fixing the trails and doing all that stuff.
But these guys that we worked with, they were older, they were in college, they were, you know, they were hippies and stuff, and they would have stargazing nights and campfire stuff and we were here all these songs like, like folk songs and everything kind of like, you know, every once in a while I get that kind of like, like deja vu and want to hear some of that stuff. That's great.
Rob Lee: Yeah. I want to go back on one of the things you touched on. I'm curious. I'm the son of a veteran. So I have to ask this. How, you know, has that experience and that you touched on it a bit as far as just, you know, accomplishing a lot of things early, you know, in the day and I abide by that because I know who my dad is.
It's like, we're up early, you know, it's like, and I do what I do day to day. But this element is the thing I'm very curious about on sort of, I think a lot of times folks who, you know, serve, they have the opportunity to travel. And I think that traveling kind of shows up those experiences show up and sort of maybe how they approach the world, how they approach the day to day. They're not just going from East Baltimore to West Baltimore.
They have mobile world perception. So for you, as far as your perspective on art and creativity, how does that experience like, like serving and sort of some of the, some of the opportunities presented like sort of after serving have, you know, influenced how you go about your work and your work overall? Yeah.
Terry Thompson: So I think that having that military experience and being able to travel to different places and stuff. I did expand my horizon, you know, growing up in the suburbs of Chicago. You know, we had the big, we had the big city to go to. We had, you know, pretty diverse suburban neighborhood and things like that, but being able to join the military and go to different places and then also being around people from different places too. Where you have people from all over the, all over the country that you're serving with and stuff that come from, you know, small towns that you've never heard of and things like that. And everybody's kind of like, have this kind of like exploratory attitude where they want to go out and see more of the world than what they grew up with or what they experienced as a child, I think.
And so having that, having that experience, it helped, it did give, enlightened me to see that the world was bigger than what I have, you know, known prior to that. And so it doesn't, you know, it doesn't shock you when you go to a place that's foreign, you know, you, you kind of hope that you would go to a place that's foreign because it's an exciting experience. You know, you go to a place that's totally different from what you grew up with and people are totally different. They eat different.
They talk different and things like that. You kind of, you know, you have just become a sponge. You just suck it up and you wanted to explore it. And when I got out of the military, I had, when I got married, I, my wife's from Italy.
So being able to venture out to the European continent and seeing more of that than having the experience of actually seeing the real works of European painters, all, especially all throughout Italy and seeing how much things were developed in the churches. You know, you go to churches. The churches probably, probably, probably the most like prolific.
You know, you go into all these churches, they spend a ton of money and effort and stuff like that to create all these masterworks and things like that. That really like overmines because, you know, prior to that, I mean, you know, things that came to Chicago, when I was a kid, we saw, you know, we saw the King Tut exhibition. We had the Art of Chicago.
We had all these great things that came from these places, but really don't make the, you know, the art of the art of the art of the art of the art of the art of the art of art. And I had a different lens too from when I was like in the 20s to the 30s. The 30s I can really appreciate it more. The 20s I can appreciate the culture more like the people and the things and things that they like, you know, if you meet somebody that's like 20 something in Australia, you're 20 something, you kind of connect in that kind of, you know, setting versus me going over there as a 30 year old who has not necessarily not interested in the most, the social connection that I would probably want as a 20 year old, but I can go in there.
I can appreciate the culture. I can go in there and look at, you know, I get spent all day out in some caves and stuff and understand more about the environment in Australia or to the gyms and things like that. So yeah, I think that, yeah, having that experience is really good.
Rob Lee: That's great. And I think as I look at this, right, and doing these conversations, like part of my selection process was going back through and like, ah, I didn't have the skills then to ask certain questions with a confidence or what have you.
Correct. You know, sort of time removed and more experience and being a bit more worldly. I think when you and I chatted back in 2022, I may have just done my first series of interviews intentionally outside of Baltimore, you know, talking to artists here, talking to creative folks here and sort of folks in and around culture. It is one thing, but being able to take that show on the road and build up confidence, but also those are perspectives. So now as I go back and talk to folks, I'm like, yeah, I learned something since we last talked.
Terry Thompson: Yeah, yeah, it's true. I mean, I am, you know, we're working on this catalog of all my work and stuff. And one of the things that I'm looking at it right now is that, you know, you need that time to be able to go from, at least for me, is that creating work when I was in high school and after high school doing stuff here and there. I mean, I wasn't doing a lot of work in the 80s. And when I was in my 20s, I could tell you right now it was party and having fun. But, you know, I did some drawings here and there and one or two paintings, but that time really was, you know, in the early days was copying what other people did. You know, it's, I think I needed that time, that adult time to really think about creating it from the perspective of my own voice, things that came from within.
And you really don't get that until you really get like, like, oh, I think the experience down pack. I mean, some people are gifted to have a like, I mean, I think Blazkow was definitely one of the ones that came out of the box. And it's such, I mean, we're the same age. And but he started doing very, very abstract stuff when he was in his 19 and 20s and stuff. And at that age, I was still doing realistic stuff, things, copying, copying things that I could actually see.
And it wasn't, it wasn't venturing into anything that was very abstract. But as in my like, like around 25, 26, I started doing a lot of like doodles and drawings and stuff. And people were like, you know, my friends were like, man, we never seen anything like that before. I was like, I just came up with it.
It was like, just playing around and stuff. But you know, you need time to do that. You really, and, and yeah, having the four years of experience with this podcast, I'm quite sure you can go back and look at yourself and say, you know what, I've come a long way and I've got this, I got this. This is how I'm doing it.
Rob Lee: Yeah, you know, sometimes when I go back through old questions and start thinking like, where did I get that question from? Where did that perspective come from? And I think in sort of refining it, before I move into this next question and refining it, I make sure that part of the process now is to have a notepad on me, have something on me to capture a thought. And I I guess reinvestigate or re listen to sources of information and direction for me, whether it be audio books, and whether it be exploring sort of maybe the writer of said audio book, maybe what they're inspired by to kind of find even the source material, the reference, you know what I mean. And I find that that kept me true. And I always feel back to this often-clean thing about having that notepad or having something that you can write it down, right, use your hands and keep the mistakes in. Because I think when I pull out the iPhone and want to write down a question, that means I'm really got to get it down.
I'm going to lose it. I don't have time to think about it and maybe edit it a little bit. I like to keep the scratch out marks and that thing. I think, you know, having the mistakes in there, which is sort of the subject of this next question, having the mistakes in there is is important because it gives you sort of maybe the breadcrumbs to how to get back to what the thinking was that was there. And with that question, I've read that creativity is the art of making mistakes. So thinking, you know, about your career as a whole, you know, is there a, I guess, an aha moment or a series of maybe fruitful mistakes that has helped shape how you approach your work, shape your creative journey?
Terry Thompson: Yeah, yeah, the lab is, we talked about this last time, the lab is a place to discover things. And most of this stuff that I've created, when I got to a point where I'm going to actually turn into a series, meaning I'm going to do at least, like, you know, in a 15 of them, is because some of the exploratory meaning that is not necessarily a mistake in the sense that when I'm just like, like, coming up with concepts and stuff, it's, it's drawing things until I get to a place where I can see the story.
And when I can see the story, then I can go ahead and move forward and stuff. Now, if I'm using a certain material that's not intended to be used a certain way, that can be considered a mistake. But it's also an opportunity, it's an opportunity to see what will happen. And yeah, I put together stuff and I'm like, oh man, that's not going to work. You know, you can't really like, you know, use this on paper.
It basically dissolves. And so, so, yeah, those moments are good to have too, because then you learn what not to do. Yeah.
Yeah. You're like, okay, I'm not going to put that together. You know, acrylic and watercolors don't work together, or acrylic and oil doesn't work together. If you try to do one on top of the other, you're going to have a problem.
So, so yeah, those things are fun. But you know, it's like, you got to try. I mean, I say, I say the mistakes are good. They're good mistakes, because if we don't make any mistakes, we never learn. And we never discover anything. I'm quite sure that a lot of scientists probably would tell you that they discover things totally by mistake, because they probably were following a methodology for creating a certain experiment. And that experiment required you to follow these steps in a certain direction. But if you deviate from that, you're basically contaminating your process. I like to contaminate my process all the time. You know, like to go in there and just like, all right, you know what, let's rip this apart. And yeah, paint over.
I mean, I don't know how many hours you probably know of that, that are famous that have painted over their paintings a thousand times and stuff like that. If you do that, because you look at it, you're like, all right, that didn't work. Let me read you just so this thing and start all over again.
Rob Lee: And in how we're recording this is the product in some ways of a mistake. Like I've read that Wi-Fi was made by mistakes. So this means of how we're communicating. Right. So we're by mistakes. So it's had an additional, had a different purpose.
It was created by accident. And there absolutely, I've had those conversations with folks. And I was just talking the other day about an old interview, you know, old podcast that I did where I was reviewing music. And I'm with my co-host at the time and we were talking and we're, we should be talking over the music because we're singing along to it and we were talking about it. I didn't have the music feed going in. So it's just us talking off key.
So things are not playing. And I was like, I cannot put this episode up, you know, because I sound like a crazy person. But I learned from that. And the experience was something I can look back on with a little embarrassment, but also, to your point, I'd learned from it. And because I know a bit now, know how to go about it, if I really wanted to do it, I can insert the music in there and sync it up in a way years later to, you know, using that, that sort of skill set. Yeah. There's just certain things that are now part of process to avoid, you know, sort of making those mistakes, but making the mistakes as part of that journey.
Terry Thompson: Well, yeah, I mean, I would have to say is that on a visual side, I can fix mistakes before they actually get to the public, you know, that is something that I can do. But I can't do that with DJ, you know, DJing live.
So, yeah. So, as a matter of living with mistakes too, is that if I'm playing live and I bump the turn table or whatever and the record skips and the crowd is like, what is he doing? Yeah, you try to minimize those things. And and a lot of that is learning early on that you have to go to the club in advance to see what they have, make sure they have the right equipment, test the test things out. And it's pretty much going with anything that has to do with anything that's in front of an audience like, like if I'm teaching a class or whatever, and I'm using audio visual equipment and things like that, I have to make sure that that stuff is working before I actually get up there and try to use it in front of a class and it's been in three, you know, 20 minutes trying to get my presentation to show up on the screen. So, yeah, it's, yeah, those things, yeah, or from giving a presentation, all of a sudden the screen goes blank because I forgot to charge up my laptop and the power went out.
Rob Lee: Right, right. There was, I got one more question I want to ask you before I go to the fire, but there was an example, you know, I was in New York in February for on AirFest.
And, you know, we've seen all types of storytellers. It was a really great opportunity to just connect with folks in public radio and in podcasting. And I just remember I was in there in a session, first session, but I went to on the Thursday up there. And there were people showing how they use audio and, you know, in DAWs and all of this different stuff. And they all rehearsed beforehand, you know, all planned stuff out. Some are doing like live narration, some are doing live mixing, making music on the fly.
And, you know, I connected with all of them. And it was one guy who was trying to build out this song step by step and it kept crashing, the DAW kept crashing. And they're working with tight parameters. It's, you know, four or five folks. It's like, you all have a tight 12 minutes to get your stuff in.
And you can see them just like sweating, but trying to happen. And I was like feeling so upset for him. I was like, you got to get it. And he eventually, you know, kind of tagged the other person in to go before him and she was scheduled to go after. And then he was able to write the ship. And I pinged him afterwards. And I was like, you got it, man.
You made it happen. Because he needed that because there's much pressure when you're trying to do something live because he had a guitar and he was playing and then dubbing so many things he was doing to show the complexity of his work. Right.
Terry Thompson: Yeah, it happens a lot, especially when you have like in the DJ world, we have so many DJs on the same lineup and then you have guys that play with the laptop guys that play with different setups and stuff needed control or whatever. And each one of them get on there and they try to connect those things. They don't work right. Right.
Stuff. Yeah, it could be, it could be like, you know, pretty much a problem, especially, especially when you have a large audience stuff. So yeah, I learned a long time ago, like, like, make sure you do have your flash drive, not just one, but I have three of the same flash drive. That way I can put them in each one of these CDJs and have them come up and not have any problem.
Don't rely on one of them and have it try to link together. You know, you learn how different tricks and stuff to make sure that you don't, you know, bomb during your set and things like that. So yeah.
Rob Lee: Yeah. Like as we're recording this, I'm going through a mixer and I have my mixer has his own storage. My laptop, me, my computer has his storage. So I have like, you know, two, if I could do three, I would write and there is a way to do three. I could just add another device to this. I'll go through the mixer is the DAW.
Then, you know, if I'm out and I have this whole cage of all of my gear, if I'm out and I need to go off site to do an interview, whether it's at someone's studio or if it's at a just a satellite like location, I bring two different recording devices, one at its base level that I can fit my gear in a fanny pack now. I'm really proud of that. That's good. And so that's what it is. And because ultimately, this is where sort of this self taught journalism thing comes in.
I'm trying to get the story trying to get that conversation. And however I do it, as long as I can capture it, I can figure out, all right, can I clean this up or have my guy clean it up? And that's really what it is. But you learn that through sort of that experience. So yeah, that's kind of that piece there.
So I want to move into this last real question. And this is in the sort of theme I was discussing around artist attrition. Now, I want to get a sense of sort of what does support from your vantage point, whether it be someone that's receiving support, someone that's showing support, but what does support look like you? What's the most rewarding version of support as a as an artist, like in your opinion? You know, for me, someone sharing a podcast, someone listening as you do, that's support for me. That shows that people I'm not just throwing it out there, you know, no one's capturing it.
I don't need someone to pay for me to do this per se. But sort of someone's showing support and it's like, I dig what you're doing. Here's the kind word because a lot of times we don't know if we're doing anything good, we can assume, but don't know.
Terry Thompson: Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you definitely have to, you know, get that kind of like, you know, public acknowledgement for the things that you do. So from an artist's perspective and stuff, I like to, you know, get back to the young artists as far a lot of times is that they are interested in how to navigate this art world and how to, you know, get gallery shows, how to get representation, things like that put together their, their like work, body of work and things like that.
So any insight that I can give them? I did. I had a conversation with a young gentleman from another friend. There's some, yeah, he was going to, I think he went to Rhode Island School of Arts and stuff and he, you know, he's from Baltimore, Rizzley and he wanted to sit down with me and talk about, you know, the whole art world thing and explore what options that he had out there at his age and the things that he's doing and stuff like that. It was good to have the conversation with him because, you know, when I got started, I really didn't like have any like roadmap in that perspective until like, like, maybe like three or four years in, I met, I met like professional artists like one artist I met during early on was Frank Smith and he was, he passed away, I guess, a couple years ago, but he was a professor at Howard University.
He was part of the Afro-Cobra art collective out of Chicago and there were this whole, they had a whole manifestation or manifest to do work around exploring this whole idea of Afro-centric art and things like that. So, but I like to have a conversation with him because he he had insight on the business side of art, you know, like making sure that, you know, you are running like a business, you have, you know, you report your taxes and things like that and, you know, you organize your things where you have a, you know, contract with galleries and you're not just like just eager to just show, just to be sure and stuff like that, you want to protect yourself. And so having that, that person being able to give me guidance and another gentleman that was ordered to that gave me a lot of insight in on the gallery world and stuff like that was a Spanish guy that lived here in Baltimore. His name was Salvador Bru and he came on, he came to the United States on a scholarship with the foundation, with four foundation and and got started. But I really got inspired by hanging around with him because he had, he was doing large-scale work like, like I would say 20 feet by 20 feet. And not just one, he had like maybe like, you know, 60 of them or 80 of them.
And he had a lost apartment, not lost, he had a lost apartment but like a lost store that was over in West Baltimore. It was the old piano factory and seeing the size of work that he was doing, the scale of it and everything was very inspirational. And he taught me a lot about, you know, about, you know, doing work of that size and then also about the art industry because those guys, they already had galleries, they already had, you know, they already had, you know, the ins and outs of, you know, the whole market and stuff like that. So hearing stories from them was good.
And if I could give that back to young people, I'd try to do that too as well. And then if I can get some insight, like I talked to like, you know, people that are like connected with the art world and at the higher levels, like, you know, like the Derek Adams and Amy Charelle, the stuff like that. And, you know, have a conversation with them about, you know, the art industry and stuff, so it's always good. And hearing them talk about it is always good. Listening to podcasts like this one and, and, and, you know, you interviewing other artists and hearing what they got to say is really good as well.
Rob Lee: Thank you. That's, that's great. And thank you for, you know, just helping, you're paying it for, frankly, you know, having sort of those situations to help you kind of like early on in your career and being able to, to move it forward and push it forward. And I feel like I know who the artist is you were referring to with the Rhode Island connection. I feel like a few though.
Terry Thompson: Okay. Oh, okay. Yeah. He's a young guy. He's pretty interesting. And yeah, I told him, you know, like, you know, stay focused and, and, and, you know, try to find a way to get yourself compensated for work. You know, one of the things I would recommend is that, you know, it becomes a survival thing too, is that, you know, make sure that you got your, your income and, and life support things in place and stuff.
Don't be a starboard artist. You don't, you'll need to do that. You just, you know, find, find your footing somewhere that way you can really focus on what you want to create and play with that. If you know that you got, you know, a steady income coming in.
Rob Lee: All right. So we got, we covered a lot. And now I think we can cover a few more sort of quick, quick things here for the rapid fire portion as I always tend to tell folks, don't overthink these fun questions.
These are fun questions. So this is kind of a precursor, this first one is kind of a precursor to the sort of show and look plugs portion, but your Instagram handle is a Shea Pizza, right?
Terry Thompson: Yeah, it's a pizza in, in Italian, but yeah, Shea Pizza, you know, people kind of read it that way. Yeah.
Rob Lee: Okay. And so I got to ask, what is your favorite pizza topping?
Terry Thompson: Pizza, I'll pepper on it now all day.
Rob Lee: What is, you touched on this earlier, going back to your experience in the army. So what is one thing that you do daily that you, that makes you feel like you've won the day?
Terry Thompson: I would say get up and be at where I need to be on time.
Rob Lee: Okay. Good. I like being on time as well. I like being on schedule. I complain about it sometimes. I'm like, look, I ain't get up early for y'all to take advantage of going to range myself. Yeah.
Terry Thompson: Yeah. Yeah. Being on time.
Rob Lee: I got to ask this one. What's an Italian term that you use regularly day to day?
Terry Thompson: Italian term? Yeah. Let's see here. I would say, well, definitely, Chow. Definitely, Chow. Yeah. I did that. Yeah. I can't go today without saying, Chow, either high or, that means high or by entertain.
Rob Lee: Oh, well, I didn't know it was high as well. I didn't know that.
Terry Thompson: Yeah. High and by. So now, now I feel more cultured. I can just do like this and say, Chow to everyone. Exactly. All right.
Rob Lee: And this, this is the last one I got for you. And this goes back to the sounds, right? You know, outside of your studio and people can hear a little bit of everything. But so I got to ask, especially with your DJ background, what is one element that makes a house song great?
Terry Thompson: The, the hook, the rhythm, the constant beat, it's like a constant heartbeat. The lyrics that is good. And mostly what takes me in there is the bass line. I mean, if the bass line has that driving force behind it, and it can, it can be, I like more of a bass line that follows the rhythm, that follows the song, that follows the, the harmony of the, of the track and stuff. Because I like, I play a lot of vocals.
So I like the local house. Yeah. Yeah. The regular tracks and stuff. They're like bridge records for me and their, their hype moments, the crowd going, but I rather, you know, get them involved into a nice vocal phone. But the vocal song has to have a lot of rhythm and a lot of bass that's going to drive it. Yeah.
Rob Lee: I love it. I love it. I'm going to play some house music when I walk after we wrap up here. It's good. Look, look, me and my partner, she, she got me into house music. She's a little older than I am. So she's like, you don't know this.
So I was like, I don't, why would I know this? And so now it's just like, it's house music all day long. It's what it is. And it's good. And we joke. I was like, yo, put on the house piano now. Let's do it.
Terry Thompson: Hey, that walk could go a lot faster. I'll tell you that right now.
Rob Lee: Absolutely. So in these final moments, there's two things I want to do as we close out. One, I want to thank you for coming back onto the podcast and spending some time with me.
This has been a true treat. And secondly, I want to invite and encourage you to share with the listeners where they can find you at social media website, all of that good stuff. The floor is yours.
Terry Thompson: All right, Rob, thank you for having me here and providing me the platform to talk about this journey that I've been doing with the artwork. It's been, it's been great. People can find me on my website, Thompsonstreet.com spelled out thompsomstreet.com. And hopefully people will have the opportunity to join us on April 10th at the Baltimore Museum of Art. We're going to have a talk, DJ conversation with DJ and then we'll have a conversation with Dr. Leslie Hammond and Mr. Sermon from the Perez Art Museum. It's a great thing for him to come to town and have a conversation with us about my art and art in general. So we look forward to seeing you in the future.
Rob Lee: And there you have it folks. I'm going to again thank Terry Thompson for coming back onto the podcast and catching up with me and providing really an insightful conversation. And for Terry Thompson, I am broadly saying that there's art, culture and community in and around your neck of the woods. You just have to look forward.
