Exploring Art, DJ Culture, and Creativity with Terry Thompson

00;00;10;12 - 00;00;32;11
Rob Lee
Welcome to the truth in this art. I am your host, Rob Lee. And today I have the privilege of being in conversation with a self-taught American artist. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he currently lives and works in Baltimore, known for a unique blend of colors, shapes, forms and motifs inspired by dance and DJ culture, fashion design, dreamscapes and experimental vistas.

00;00;32;17 - 00;00;35;08
Rob Lee
Please welcome Terry Thompson. Welcome to the podcast.

00;00;35;23 - 00;00;38;17
Terry Thompson
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me on here.

00;00;39;03 - 00;00;42;07
Rob Lee
So well written intro is like I took it from a website.

00;00;43;20 - 00;00;47;06
Terry Thompson
Well, that's pretty good. Like, I like it.

00;00;47;07 - 00;00;52;21
Rob Lee
I've had a few people in the past is like, yo, I know I wrote that, but I'm going to take what you said and use.

00;00;52;21 - 00;00;57;04
Terry Thompson
It in a way. If it works, it works. Man Go for it.

00;00;57;07 - 00;01;12;00
Rob Lee
Absolutely. So I want to start off with a very kind of general question, you know, and again, thanking you for coming to the podcast. Can you tell us in the listeners about your work and what are the main ideas you're you're working to express?

00;01;12;13 - 00;01;37;19
Terry Thompson
Well, my work has evolved over the years by some. Been doing this since 1990 when I moved to Baltimore. I had a lot of space downtown ahead of that empty wall space. One of the things I wanted to do was try to decorate my apartment and I couldn't afford to buy a whole bunch of paintings. So I knew I had some artistic skills because I took art classes all through high school.

00;01;38;06 - 00;02;15;11
Terry Thompson
And so I started dabbling a little bit into creating them. I wanted to do something more abstract. Before my ventures into Baltimore, I had spent many years doing a lot of realistic stuff. Some of the artists that I kind of followed during high school were like boards for Leo and Frank Transmeta. They were like fantasy artists. If you've ever seen the the books by CONAN the Barbarian or any of those like the book that came out back in the seventies and stuff.

00;02;15;16 - 00;02;34;25
Terry Thompson
They were the artists of those cover of those covers. And so I was a big fan of them, and I did that was in high school. Besides the classical training and stuff that I'd learned over the four years that I had in classes to my teacher. But I had them built like I really got into like more abstract stuff.

00;02;34;25 - 00;03;01;11
Terry Thompson
I wanted to kind of devote my own style. So moving into the apartment gave me opportunity to like, like experiment. So I, I got a couple of canvases and started to form these, like, little eyes, kind of abstract shapes. I'm definitely a big fan of Basquiat, so I had some early influence. But with with those earlier pieces. But I wanted to create my own style.

00;03;01;20 - 00;03;29;00
Terry Thompson
And so what happened is that somebody bought the works and I'm like, okay, I guess I got a career now. I give me money for it. And I had an exhibition of one of the local promoters sell my work and put it into his his party and local artist Jeffrey Kidd. He he saw the work and he had a little gallery over on more Charles Street, Cohan's original.

00;03;29;00 - 00;04;10;15
Terry Thompson
And he basically gave me my first show. And that was that was the beginning of everything. And now. And so 30 years into it, I've been creative most of my own style over the years. I kind of like between figurative work to abstract. I play around with oils. I really get really known for my collage work because I guess I went to the exhibition back in 1983 and I saw that and I really wanted to try to create something that same kind of style and influence.

00;04;10;15 - 00;04;32;04
Terry Thompson
And so but I wanted to do it in my own way. So I kind of like took the elements of using paper and I just basically use to paint. So I would try to find, you know, 20 or 30 magazines of the same magazine with the same colors in there. And I cut it up and now makes it, you know, I got I got a piece and put together and then people like, do you want them there?

00;04;32;18 - 00;04;53;24
Terry Thompson
And yeah, that was was that was that was really where everything took off when I first started doing those collage works. But a good friend of mine I met in Baltimore named Salvador Brookins. He passed away, but he's a Spanish painter and he had a big, huge lost downtown in a piano factory. And I had a chance to meet him.

00;04;53;24 - 00;05;17;28
Terry Thompson
And I went into his studio and I saw these massive pieces of work that he was doing, like, you know, 20 by 25 feet coming in. Yeah, yeah. The studio was huge. And he was I'd never seen anybody, like, you know, do any work of that scale in a personally knowing him and stuff. So he he really told me this.

00;05;18;00 - 00;05;51;03
Terry Thompson
The fact is that really I got to master the painting because he said collages are nice and stuff and people are going to going to gravitate to that and stuff. But really you have to master the painting. And I was doing both at the same time. So yeah, it kind of worked out for me because obviously applying a lot of the colors that I had in the collages work and working in the painting, and I played around between figurative work and then I got into more, more like all abstract probably in the last ten years and stuff, but I still go back and forth when it comes to playing around with it.

00;05;51;14 - 00;06;12;10
Terry Thompson
But the things that influenced me are definitely the music. I mean, I'm, I'm in the music all the time because I spent many years as a deejay and I listen to music. In the studio all the time. So they're all intertwined in terms of being able to do both of those disciplines at the same time.

00;06;13;08 - 00;06;42;16
Rob Lee
Thank you. Thank you for for running the running through that for us and sharing sharing those those beginnings and some of those ideas that you're you're working to express. So you touched on Frank friends that are you and I've read that, you know, album covers, magazine images and posters where there was kind of early inspirations growing up. Is there a piece of that sort of art that really comes to mind that has a particularly strong memory for you and what about it sticks out?

00;06;42;22 - 00;06;47;12
Rob Lee
And I look up the frank friends that are like CONAN and I was like, Oh, I know this guy.

00;06;47;25 - 00;07;17;26
Terry Thompson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I don't paint like those guys anymore. I mean, that's in high school. But if I ever had to think about any of the works that really stand out, that, you know, from the time that's really been embedded in my psyche as far as as an artistic piece, I have to say, you know, being from Chicago, my mom and grandma, they took me to see the Picasso statue that's in front of the Civic Center.

00;07;18;05 - 00;07;52;23
Terry Thompson
And I think I thought I think I started like 19 updated myself, 1973 or four when it first got installed into Chicago. And that that piece of work has been in my psyche since then. You know, looking at it now, I'm looking at it like, okay, I could see a lot of his African influence in that piece. And, you know, maybe it was something that, you know, that I had that, you know, my subconscious seeing I was like, you know, it's just always been there.

00;07;52;23 - 00;08;14;13
Terry Thompson
So, yeah, I can say that that that has been, you know, something that's been with me for a long time. But, you know, as artists in high school, you know, you have to learn classical work. So by the the artist that I kind of gravitated to back in there were part of like school projects were like different. We had to do French and Christmas stuff.

00;08;14;13 - 00;08;52;01
Terry Thompson
So I did a lot of craft. Yeah, I think my show Crack was the French painter and he did a lot of landscapes and stuff like that. I was really intrigued by his works in high school. My friends that I had class where they were doing a lot of fantasy art. So because, you know, at that time we had movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind Space Odyssey was still being on rotation a lot.

00;08;52;03 - 00;09;19;03
Terry Thompson
Space Odyssey, I think the TV series came out around that same time too. So yeah, so they were doing it. We were doing album covers. Me and my friends, we were copying like the Parliament Funkadelic album covers or Brother Johnson's, you know, anything that we wanted to like, you know, try to give homage to and actually, you know, use our artistic skills imply that.

00;09;20;16 - 00;09;47;10
Terry Thompson
But I had different kind of friends in school, so some of my friends, they were into the music stuff and then I had friends that were like artists and like Kevin Hayes, he was in my high school class. We had study hall together and he did a lot of realistic stuff. So and, and so I kind of followed him along that way too, because he was really doing a lot of nudes.

00;09;47;20 - 00;10;10;05
Terry Thompson
And so we would get Playboy magazines and we're just like, Yeah, we just like study hall drawing these girls and, you know, doing it. Try to get as close to the real thing as we could. And you know, my Mario friends that I work with in restaurants, they all got to go down to the to the Playboy Company downtown.

00;10;10;20 - 00;10;36;10
Terry Thompson
And, you know, Playboy headquarters was in Chicago at the time. So if we could get you a job with Neiman and all those guys and like, I don't know, but yeah. But yeah, I mean, there was that was good to have because you know, you're doing you know, at that time we were doing so much stuff like, you know, playing basketball, running, biking, fishing and having so much fun.

00;10;36;10 - 00;10;57;19
Terry Thompson
And we just took one thing and and and that's kind of what I do right now is that I have a lot of different interests in a lot of different things. So that's why sometimes, you know, people see me, see me, and I see a lot of promotions or plugs around me and artist. Yeah. And then then they see the artist guys and say, I see you deejay in here.

00;10;57;21 - 00;11;17;01
Terry Thompson
Yeah. Or they might see a record come out and they say, I heard you produced this record as a produce one or two and then a whole bunch of. But yeah, it's like, it's like but it is all, all works together for me. Yeah, it's the fashion stuff I've always been a fan of, of fashion since like since I moved.

00;11;17;01 - 00;11;40;00
Terry Thompson
There's a lot I would watch on the was at CNN on Saturday every Saturday 10:00 AM. I was tuned into it to do a fashion show. I'm watching Clone Club Money and all of the different designers that they have, like Jeffrey B and all that sort of. So it's but yeah, yeah.

00;11;40;11 - 00;12;08;06
Rob Lee
And, and I think it's important to have like multiple things that you're into is like not being in a box and kind of doing what you enjoy and contributing to whatever it is and contributing to the media medium, whether it is doing, you know, you know, collage work, doing paintings, you know, there's multiple things. And I think create has got to create, you know, artists got to got to do the right thing, you know, and I think it's like I like seeing people do different things.

00;12;08;06 - 00;12;17;16
Rob Lee
It's like, oh, okay, you're trying something different versus this idea that, you know, some people will put upon you. You're supposed to stick to this one lane. Now I can do a little bit everything.

00;12;18;16 - 00;12;38;11
Terry Thompson
But as that's true, I mean, I think for at least for me as an artist, I think the freedom of being an artist is being able to do what you want to do. So so that the the marketed is one way. I don't really necessarily follow that trend. I mean, I might not, you know, have the audience or the voice that's, you know, popular today.

00;12;38;11 - 00;13;02;08
Terry Thompson
But, you know, my audience may be around 100 years from now, you know, maybe something like so so yeah, I yeah, I agree. I agree. Would I like to create and I and one thing about being in Baltimore is that you you have such a luxury of being able to create here without have a lot of distractions I think at least for me is that is that it's a quiet city.

00;13;02;08 - 00;13;29;28
Terry Thompson
I mean, outdoors like crazy sometimes. But as far as, like, you know, crime and crime and all that kind of stuff. But if you are just really just doing your own thing in your own bubble is kind of a quiet town. And you don't have to like, you know, be distracted from like of the budget if I was in New York, it'd be like, I'll be out the club all the time or, you know, part in some fashion show or whatever and never getting the work done.

00;13;29;28 - 00;13;49;23
Terry Thompson
But here I get work. I can get work that I can, you know, raise a family. I can do all these things and not have all the pressures that come with living in a big city like that. And I mean, also it it also influences the work that I do because I can go from, you know, if the Fed, Baltimore is kind of dull.

00;13;49;23 - 00;14;07;20
Terry Thompson
I can I can paint bright. You know, I can do bright things in my studio. I can paint things that lighten things up. And then when there's too much, you know, stimulus in the in the in the air and stuff like there's too much, you know, energy, I can tone it down and go, you know, I can do black and white stuff.

00;14;08;15 - 00;14;33;04
Rob Lee
So and I think that leads me into this this next question I wanted to ask you. And let's talk about color a little bit. What role does color play in your artwork? And also, why does it play into the fashion side of things? Because you're into clothes and you're into fashion. So tell me about that. When it comes to like does a certain color work better with a certain texture or a certain textile?

00;14;33;26 - 00;14;39;28
Rob Lee
And what does that color may mean in your work? So tell me about that.

00;14;39;28 - 00;15;04;23
Terry Thompson
Well, the color is the I am like attracted to a lot of color. So so when I go into like the Earth supply store, I kind of go through and I pick up things that are, you know, appealing to me as far as the codes are concerned. And I work in oil. So Wells allows me to, you know, blend a lot of different colors.

00;15;04;23 - 00;15;38;23
Terry Thompson
Easy. I can I can let it. I can work on things then and and then I can manipulate them a little bit later because the dry process is longer. So and I like the way that the oils really like, you know, they have a rich color compared to like, like the pastels or the watercolors or acrylic. So but as far as what you know, what motivates me, I think that, you know, if I think about colors, I think like, you know, reds, blues and oranges and stuff.

00;15;38;23 - 00;16;00;18
Terry Thompson
And I really like to make those things pop off the candidates as much as I can. And I like to blend things that is more is more natural for me. I don't you know, I'm I'm not like a person who's who sit down and say, okay, I'm going to take this red tube and we're massive widgets, green tube, and I'm going to come up with this color, whatever.

00;16;00;25 - 00;16;34;08
Terry Thompson
Everything is on the fly. So I feel it. My studio, you'll see you'll see these, these like bowls of different mixtures of paints, some of them half dry, some of them always dry. But it's just like this big palette of colors at the time. And, you know, and they're also timestamped to because the works that I did 20 years ago are not the same color they are in terms of like they're bright.

00;16;34;13 - 00;16;53;15
Terry Thompson
But as far as you can see that I'm using different paints today. I'm using with what we have available today. And so I can get a lot deeper with the colors that are coming out now because they're all new colors that come out and you find different ways of painting because I have my own studio techniques and stuff.

00;16;53;15 - 00;17;26;23
Terry Thompson
So things that I would do, I was doing back in, in, in the early nineties and stuff. I am not doing that anymore because I that was pretty much following the same path and of historical painting that I learned in school. But, but now I'm, you know, 30 years in it is that or I would say roughly around 50 years ago I started to figure out my own technique that is unique to my work.

00;17;26;23 - 00;18;08;14
Terry Thompson
And so now I'm able to take those colors a, give it more, more brightness than there before, because I was using the canvas to do a lot of the work and and the canvas absorbs a lot of the colors. I mean, that's what that's what that's what camera's is supposed to do. So I figured out a way how to, like, layer things up and have it wear like the colors are bouncing off the canvas and that of being absorbed by the, by the that the paint game is all about the canvas as much as what was really taught early on by artists historically.

00;18;08;27 - 00;18;43;19
Terry Thompson
So yeah coming up with that, that's good. And as far as the fashion stuff, I mean, I mean I'm, you know, I'm more I'm more attracted to the clothing of women by that are better by the designers and and intrigues me that they use a lot of of painterly style in their design. So so you can see a lot of the influence that they have as far as, you know, picking their fabrics and things like that.

00;18;43;26 - 00;19;08;04
Terry Thompson
It's the same thing with artists would do it if I were going to the studio, pick it up, you know, too. They just using the different, you know, way of presenting their their their images and stuff that they they or their basic kind of fabric. Electronic Arts would be cut painting stuff. So, so that's a weird for me is that I wear I see like, you know, a fashion show and stuff.

00;19;08;27 - 00;19;30;07
Terry Thompson
I look at it, okay, they pick this favorite color. They use this backdrop to help emphasize the fabric a little bit more. I don't know anything about like, you know, fabric design or things like that or patterns that they use their stuff. I didn't you know, I don't go into all of that technical stuff, but I do like the theatrical.

00;19;30;10 - 00;19;32;02
Terry Thompson
That's that's pretty much what I like.

00;19;32;13 - 00;19;58;15
Rob Lee
I dig it. So I want to I want to ask you this. We talked a little bit about your about your influences. Right. And, you know, I read Picasso's in there, Henry Moore Basket Michelangelo and I heard this thing about comparison kills creativity. So can you tell me about like who or what or like anti like motivations or anti influences?

00;19;58;15 - 00;20;20;29
Rob Lee
Because those exist, we always ask people about their influences and their motivations for their work, but we never really get into why. What kind of takes away from your work? What kind of like hinders you within the process? And I'm at a interesting spot from my own standpoint where, you know, there can only be like two podcasters or two people covering and having conversations.

00;20;20;29 - 00;20;34;03
Rob Lee
So naturally people are almost forcing this comparative thing and it will you do an interview with this person and it wasn't as good as that interview and so on. So tell me about that. Like those, those kind of anti influences.

00;20;35;15 - 00;21;02;03
Terry Thompson
Yeah, well, I try. I don't even try. I just it's just a mental thing for me not to be kind of like, sidetracked if other artists, I mean, I, I, I do follow with artists who do it like, you know, friends of mine like Derek Adams. You know, he's, he's, he's someone that we started out doing work early on in the nineties.

00;21;02;03 - 00;21;26;24
Terry Thompson
This stuff I follow about a lot of what he's doing. It doesn't really influence what I do as far as, you know, because, you know, his assets, his assets matrix is what works for him, you know, and I think that that is for others. I mean, I follow, you know, Richie Johnson that follow, you know, so many artists.

00;21;27;15 - 00;22;04;21
Terry Thompson
You know, of course, you know, when we were being back in the old days, you know, he was, you know, his his collage work was was amazing. And looking at it, you know, I think we get ideas from other artists. You know, for me, I look at some of the artist's work and I'll say, okay, all right, if they work on this kind of scale, you know, what are the logistics to it, you know, in terms of like getting the right material or would they present something in a certain way, make sure that, you know, let me try to see how that works for me as far as, like, you know, have a painting side

00;22;04;21 - 00;22;29;18
Terry Thompson
by side or, you know, two inches apart. It doesn't does the work show? Well, when you do that? I mean, those those can I mean, more like technical stuff. Yeah. Instead of styles. I mean, I think that a lot of artists only because for me, everything for me is all in imagination. It's all it's all whatever I could think of, you know.

00;22;29;20 - 00;23;01;29
Terry Thompson
So I can't really like, you know, get I really don't get inspired by other artists to do what they do because I'm doing it from within, you know? And so what I'm doing today is not going to be doing tomorrow because I'm always coming up with new ideas. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. So, so, so yeah. So for me is like the studio is a lab, you know, for me to come here and experiment, I work, work by myself, I'm here by myself all the time.

00;23;01;29 - 00;23;30;06
Terry Thompson
So, so for me, it's a place to discover and it's good to see what art to do because I get to discover what they're doing without, you know, I don't, you know, and but as far as how it influences my work, I don't you know, I don't really let it kind of influence say if I see somebody like having a good show or they have they have this success this way, I'm that artist that would try to emulate that.

00;23;30;06 - 00;23;52;25
Terry Thompson
I would just continue on my path of doing my thing. And, you know, and and as far as like, you know, have a negative influence is it's only a few allow it to be if you allow you if you allow it to compromise that you're doing so for me I would never let any artists doing something else compromise what I'm doing.

00;23;52;25 - 00;24;07;05
Terry Thompson
Even if the even if the artist comes into my studio or they say, oh, why don't you hang it this way? Or Why don't you paint this over that? And I said, Oh, yeah, that's interesting, people. But I was, I would say at that point it'd be your pay no day.

00;24;07;06 - 00;24;07;17
Rob Lee
It yeah.

00;24;07;25 - 00;24;39;18
Terry Thompson
Yeah. It wouldn't be mine, it'd be you, it'd be you. Pay me, give me instructions on how to paint so I would not do it. Just the fact is that the canvas is for me to discover and and I want to be able to discover things on my own and and do it. That's what. And now as far as, like, you know, like I could just say, for instance, like DJ and stuff like that, which is, you know, you can have one deejay versus another, you know, how a kind of different kind of like platform both.

00;24;39;18 - 00;25;05;23
Terry Thompson
I'm using the same material like, you know, you're talking about you you having to podcast notes for another host is having a little pocket where you get technical ways of doing things right. You know deejays we can say this to young guys to say you've got to develop your own style. You know, you got 20 records that can give you the same 20 where I'm gonna play those different, you know, I want to blend them I'm going to blend them totally different.

00;25;06;02 - 00;25;18;05
Terry Thompson
I'm going to put it in a way that you would not even think of because the is coming within. Now, if I'm trying to follow your your steps, you know how you do it. Know I'm just basically copy you.

00;25;20;06 - 00;25;35;21
Rob Lee
And what's and what's really in there like when, you know, I work in a kind of commission sort of space or what have you and someone may ask me to do some interviews or be a host or help consult or whatever. Right? And, and they're like, Oh, well, I would do it this way. I was like, Well, you hired me.

00;25;35;27 - 00;25;51;17
Rob Lee
So do you want what I know or do you want to do it your way and just use it? Because just so I know. Right? And yeah, I think and I think you're example right there with a DJ is like here's 20 records or what have you. If it's just here's I got five questions, you know, I'm going to ask this.

00;25;51;28 - 00;26;11;25
Rob Lee
I can I can like I'm so confident in the fact that if I ask those questions, they can be the same questions worded the same way. It's because of how I operate and how I go about it, my style. I know that I'm going to get a much different answer from the guest or from the person I'm interviewing than my contemporary may be if they're asking the same questions.

00;26;11;29 - 00;26;28;05
Rob Lee
It's just a matter of styles, a matter of how I go about it and you know, I'm going to have a different perspective on it. I'm going to truly just come into a situation curious and really want to know. And there's a earnestness in there that, you know, you can't replicate, is embedded in me, is who I am.

00;26;28;05 - 00;26;28;20
Rob Lee
You know what I mean?

00;26;29;28 - 00;26;51;17
Terry Thompson
That's true. I mean, you have your own style. I could tell by, you know, your whole interview process is that you have your own unique way of doing things and it's unique to you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, each each host or, you know, commentary or whatever, they all have their own different style, you know. Stephen Smith on them, on with you on ESPN or one of.

00;26;51;23 - 00;26;52;12
Rob Lee
ESPN in.

00;26;52;20 - 00;27;06;03
Terry Thompson
ESPN. I mean, he's crazy. Crazy. You know, you but he's not the same as the other guys, you know. So it's like, you know, so everybody, I think you have to be be genuine in your own way.

00;27;06;12 - 00;27;07;25
Rob Lee
Because they start calling it personalities.

00;27;07;25 - 00;27;31;11
Terry Thompson
Right? Right. This person, I hear you have your own personality. I mean, there's some things that, you know, of course, there are some success metrics probably out there in terms of if you follow this metric, like if I wanted to get into a museum today, if I want to have an exhibition and get it to a museum today, today it seems like in order to do that as a black artist and you had to paint like pretty much black figurative work.

00;27;31;21 - 00;28;01;00
Terry Thompson
That's what that's what it seems like as from outside looking in. Yeah. But you know I personally when you do that, you know, I would, I would necessarily try to change my style to try to get picked up by a gallery or or to be placed in the museum because the museum the museum commission right now is to place black art, art, art and artists.

00;28;01;00 - 00;28;23;23
Terry Thompson
And at the same time, they want to do both. So I want to continue on my same path that I've been doing as are the artists who create the things that I like to do. And I want I want people to see the work and see that it's me, you know, it's not something that's that's different from from just, you know, Dawn would be pretty much like doing commission work.

00;28;24;06 - 00;28;25;08
Terry Thompson
Yeah. And I do that.

00;28;25;14 - 00;28;47;10
Rob Lee
And I think with it it's, it's this thing where do like, you know, it's like does the market dictate what it is? And that I remember, you know, you should do this type of thing, you should do this type of podcast, you should do this kind of barbershop, kind of, you know, almost like the with the athletes do like the LeBron James like podcast or radio or TV show.

00;28;47;10 - 00;29;08;07
Rob Lee
They have like I've done that before and I have my own version of that. That's not something I'm interested in. I'd rather do something that I'm curious about that I can obsess over and keep wanting to to ask these questions and keep wanting to give these stories. Those are the things that really interests me. And, you know, I like the way that you put it earlier and I'm going to steal that.

00;29;08;07 - 00;29;26;04
Rob Lee
I'm just letting you know, no, go for it. You know, it's a lab and that's really what it is. And, you know, I'm going to experiment with questions or asking people things in a certain way. And, you know, this is the first time today this is the first time that I've done this many interviews. And one day you were my sixth interview of the day.

00;29;26;16 - 00;29;53;25
Rob Lee
Wow. Yeah, yeah. I'm out here. I'm obsessing and you know, but in it, each one, I feel like I didn't drag on it. I feel like I was able to able to kind of put forth the same effort, the same attention and the same degree of quality in it. And I think that that's something I wouldn't learn if I was trying to do what someone else is doing, you know, or trying to follow what someone else would say, Oh, you should only do like one per day, or you should only do it at this time or this many people.

00;29;54;01 - 00;30;08;25
Rob Lee
I'd rather just go with what my gut says and let that drive it. My gut, my taste, and what I think is good and be accountable for it. If it turns out that it's not good, then I'm the person that's just kind of judging me. I might hit you back like, Hey, Terry, can we do that interview over?

00;30;08;25 - 00;30;12;03
Rob Lee
I think I was made, you know, I think. But I think we've gone well here.

00;30;12;13 - 00;30;39;03
Terry Thompson
Yeah, yeah. No, no, it's I mean, that's that's the beautiful thing about being artists, artist, your art, your artists, your your your feel. I'm an artist in my field. And so being an artist means that you are really taking chances. You're you're exploring, you're going out there and and trying to investigate and find your own niche and discover things that work for you.

00;30;39;28 - 00;30;58;14
Terry Thompson
And if you don't do that, you know, you pretty much not giving yourself a chance because, you know, as hard as you are to say, okay, let me try this. You know, if it doesn't work, I'll try to try something else. Yeah, that's it. That's what we did. We kind of sit and sit around and explore all the time.

00;30;59;08 - 00;31;19;05
Rob Lee
So I got one more real question for you before I get to those Rapidfire questions. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention more about your your background as a as a deejay. So let's let's talk about that a little bit. I read that you're well-known veteran club deejay, producer, promoter with releases on the London UK record label that defected.

00;31;19;12 - 00;31;28;17
Rob Lee
Tell me about creating in that like dance DJ community in perhaps how that's embedded and baked into your art practice, your painting practice.

00;31;29;13 - 00;32;03;24
Terry Thompson
Yeah. So I grew up in In the square, let's see here in 1976 was my freshman year and I think that yeah, a buddy of mine gave me for Christmas sort been like that December the album the soundtrack certainly loves with John Travolta yeah so they had all of Rivera's and all the little songs on there and stuff.

00;32;04;19 - 00;32;36;01
Terry Thompson
So we were a big, big fans of disco early on because we're in the high school, so, so and two years into high school, my friend Bruce Thomas, he needed help deejaying a party that he ran out. This VFW, that's what he did back in the seventies and stuff. Or you either ran out of high school or VFW people to get access to the church to go for it.

00;32;36;01 - 00;33;19;20
Terry Thompson
But in order for him to play, be able to play, he needed another person because he had one turntable. I had the other turntable. We switched from channel to channel just between records. That was the beginning. And then as we got more money, we got more sophisticated equipment. And so getting RadioShack mixer for six, six, six, $7, being able to call ourselves blowing and blending records together to really blend in that well, I don't think, you know, looking back at it and stuff, what I know now, but that was, you know, during high school and by the time I got to high school, I think it was good enough to actually play in a club

00;33;19;28 - 00;33;45;10
Terry Thompson
like get hired or stuff, went to California to play it out there. What we're really took off is I, I was in Hawaii and, and I had like tons of tons of nightclubs, tons of tons of tourists. So I was working basically every weekend in different places, every different club. And so and I just kept going at it.

00;33;45;10 - 00;34;13;15
Terry Thompson
And it has always been something that was, you know, kind of kind of attracted to, you know, the art stuff was a natural thing. I mean, I've been drawn to the kids, so that's more naturally. This was something that I learned, you know, learn how to do, learn how to deejay, learn how to mix records, learn how to do the, you know, understanding the mechanics of of mixing records, you know, beats per minute, you know, getting this machine to measure the beats per minute.

00;34;13;15 - 00;34;35;24
Terry Thompson
And I mean, now you got we get the turntable there, the CDs, they pretty much tell you what the beats are right now. You have to do all that stuff. But back in the old days, we had to figure out the beats and the key, the song and all that kind of stuff. But it was like, you know, it's fun is like you go in there, you, you put together, you know, your set, get it, get it ready for the nightclub.

00;34;36;13 - 00;34;53;02
Terry Thompson
I worked at a lot of places that were like I would say if we compare today would be like top 40 because the main dance music was top 40 back then. So, so, so we play everything that was like good. I mean, if it was good and it was danceable, it wasn't a club that I didn't get into the underground stuff.

00;34;53;04 - 00;35;22;24
Terry Thompson
I came to Baltimore pretty much, but the yeah, doing the DJ stuff, it's always been something that's been, you know, an interest of me as it got more and more physical and I mean with the big club back in the seventies in the discotheques I like, I want to be like the guy up there that's up in a tower and like, you know, I don't know how big this was because I was 16, but it was called the library in the suburbs where I lived it.

00;35;22;24 - 00;35;44;03
Terry Thompson
And and and it was the older guy, you know, white. White guy with mustache and curly hair, you know, looking down on us and playing, you know, I remember the song Knock, knock, knock on wood just panning across the speakers. This stuff. I mean, they were like those those fun times. And then, you know, as we got old, we like we got to learn how to do this ourselves.

00;35;44;27 - 00;36;08;18
Terry Thompson
And yeah, it became a fun thing. And then, you know, get into the club stuff then been actually working and then getting into playing at underground clubs like in Baltimore came Baltimore and I got, you know, I started, I actually did my first party in Baltimore, the club called Signal, and I reviewed it out and I brought in Mickey Oliver from Chicago.

00;36;08;18 - 00;36;31;18
Terry Thompson
He was one of the famous deejays from how big of a product? So like I said, why is this place empty? Let's let's try to pack this place up. You know, I was like, you know, new to the town. I don't really know all the the politics of the city and stuff, but I wanted to do it and I did it and it was fun and then I end up meeting like Bonnie Davis Whitney at Club Fantasy and I did parties for him.

00;36;32;24 - 00;36;48;14
Terry Thompson
Then I, you know, just kept going and. MAYPOLE The Love Club, the Love Bar. Las venues around Baltimore and DC have been on my thing for like the last 30 years. So yeah.

00;36;48;23 - 00;37;00;06
Rob Lee
Well, thank you. Thank you for sharing that with us. And I think that's kind of a good place for us to start there. You're able to get it in and I think now I can go into these rapid fire questions, if that's okay with you.

00;37;00;17 - 00;37;01;00
Terry Thompson
Sure.

00;37;01;09 - 00;37;12;07
Rob Lee
So I got I got a group of women in pretty much with these. We want to try to answer these as quickly as possible because, you know, rapid fire people like I don't know if that is my favorite movie or what have you. So we get into the nitty gritty a little bit.

00;37;12;23 - 00;37;13;03
Terry Thompson
Okay.

00;37;13;13 - 00;37;25;05
Rob Lee
All right. So here's the first one, though, softball for you. What is your favorite TV show right now that you watch recently that you binge? What's up with the favorite? What's your favorite show right now?

00;37;26;12 - 00;37;45;27
Terry Thompson
That was I like in the Dark is the TV show I think is on Mount C. CW Yeah, it's pretty cool. It's is based in Chicago, so that that kind of a treat me and then as a actress that I kind of chat with every once while she's on that show. So that's pretty cool.

00;37;46;14 - 00;37;55;06
Rob Lee
Thanks. The next question I got for you, what was the last song that you listen to? I like your music guy. So what was the last song that you listened to?

00;37;55;17 - 00;38;11;20
Terry Thompson
Oh, right before this podcast, American America is is the band in the Sandman. Okay, man? Tin Man in the Sandman, those two songs, they were they were big artist back in the seventies. You like Woodstock and the Woodstock music.

00;38;13;00 - 00;38;14;09
Rob Lee
What is your favorite drink?

00;38;15;03 - 00;38;15;18
Terry Thompson
Lemonade.

00;38;16;22 - 00;38;20;20
Rob Lee
What's going like lemonade? Like a nice, nice, cold lemonade. And I'd like.

00;38;20;21 - 00;38;21;28
Terry Thompson
Lemonade is good lemonade.

00;38;23;29 - 00;38;33;20
Rob Lee
So what dish is to love? What dish do you cook best? Are you cooking? Are you thrown down in the kitchen? What dish do you cook best?

00;38;33;20 - 00;38;39;24
Terry Thompson
A lot of stuff, I would say. Let's go with the carbonara.

00;38;40;19 - 00;38;44;07
Rob Lee
Okay. You kind of kind of want to feel they're cool. I appreciate it.

00;38;44;15 - 00;38;44;27
Terry Thompson
Yeah.

00;38;45;21 - 00;38;57;17
Rob Lee
Okay. This is the last one you've been here. You know, Baltimore is is where you're at now. Is is is I guess is home now for you. Chicago is always your place. But, you know, Baltimore is home now, I suppose. Yes. Describe Baltimore in three words.

00;38;58;18 - 00;39;11;15
Terry Thompson
Fun, experimental. And I would say it is kind of I would say groovy. Yeah.

00;39;12;10 - 00;39;30;02
Rob Lee
I like it. So they have a box that says it. I want to thank you for coming on to the podcast and indulge me and talking and chopping it up with me a little bit. And I want to invite and encourage you to tell the listeners where to find you where. Check out some of your work, your social media website, all that good stuff.

00;39;30;02 - 00;39;31;00
Rob Lee
So the floor is yours.

00;39;31;28 - 00;39;51;21
Terry Thompson
Rob Well, thank you for having me, man. It's been interesting and has been a wonderful conversation. I'm glad we finally get the chance to meet each other. As far as the audience, when you check out my work, you can check it out at Thompson Street. Bcom That's Thompson Street spelled out to you. Thompson Street are I will eat ecom.

00;39;52;16 - 00;40;08;01
Terry Thompson
I'm on social media ad type chart on Twitter, pizza on AOL and pizza on Instagram, che pizza c h e z oil dot com is my email address.

00;40;08;29 - 00;40;25;27
Terry Thompson
So they have it folks. I want to again thank Terry Thompson for coming on to the podcast. And I'm Rob Lee. Sandy, there's art in and around Baltimore. You just got to look for it.