Today we’d like to introduce you to Cleveland Dean.
Cleveland, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Interest in art has been a lifelong constant. I was the type of kid that constantly wanted to go to museums and my parents encouraged such. Initially it was a way to contextualize the histories I had read about from a very young age. I was never really into comics but more into history and philosophy. At age 9 when my friends would read comics I would be reading Nietchze and Freud and Jung. As I would read such, various forms of art were a way for me to visualize these accounts and ideals.
Later in life, I was going to school for interior design and architecture. In doing such I took the only art class I have ever taken. I have drawn since I was a child but college was my first class. I created a few works simply because I wanted art on my walls before I started collecting. It was also a relief because I was in school, doing corporate sales and running my special events company all at the same time. I was happy to revitalize something that I had done in my past and have a new revived passion for it. Over time friends would come over for dinner parties and ask me who I was collecting and I would tell them this was my work. Encouragement and self-made opportunity allowed me to start showing and selling work immediately. In addition, I saw how I was able to have an effect on the people that engage with my work which was very humbling. I felt a compulsion to dig deeper and explore to continue not only provide inspiration and contemplation but also fulfill inadequacies in my own life. I started Chicago’s first weekly live painting event where I curated for 30 various artists as well as my work, gave up on corporate sales, gave up on architecture and interior design and dedicated myself to all aspects of fine art as well as mentorship and philanthropy.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I have a firm belief that different messages have different mediums. Be it painting, photography, sound, sculpture, film, etc. I will never be the artist that does one style and that’s it for the rest of my life. I am an artist, I do whatever I want to do.
That being said, I enjoy working in the vain of creating that which needs and inspires contemplation. I have no interest in easy, recognizable, non-challenging work. I want to challenge as well as be challenged. I respect all art genres however for my practice I need challenge. I need to be able to exercise my core of my work, duality. Make simplicity as complex as possible. For me, currently abstract work and sculpture as well as conceptual work resonates this need to express duality. Even though these styles are vastly different the core is the same.
I find my inspiration, typically, from the conversations, posts, words, notions of others that view my work. I push myself well beyond my limits to not disappoint those that believe in me, have been inspired by me and/or value me and my work. Also, when I see the actions of someone who makes something out of nothing. I respect and am inspired by Hustlers, a word often miscommunicated. I respect and am inspired by anyone that lives, eats and breathes what they do, didn’t have a silver spoon, may not technically have the education but make it happen. People that are accepting of their failures and uses them to win. Ground up.
I intertwine symbolism, historical context, psychological effects of color on the human psyche and coded language in my works. My only job is to make people think. We are in a day and age where creating and herding sheep is at an all-time high. Wrong information, fake news, someone thinking they are an expert on a subject because they read 140 characters, instant gratification all have had a bad influence of our current day. Abstractly and conceptually I do what I can to encourage people to see and think for themselves.
What people should know about my work is that I am going to do whatever I want to do. I am not one of these artists that only do one thing and will only do one thing for my career. I am not a one-dimensional thinker so why should my work be. Aside duality being the main testament to my work I do what I can to make simplicity as complicated as possible.
The sterotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
Figure it out. I have been a full-time artist for 13 years. Many of them were bleak, hell…I’m not out of the woods now. Creating has to be a habit. It has to be something you do without thinking. 5 minutes a day or 16 hours a day. If you want to create something and the supplies cost $500 to do the work and you only have $10…create something that that cost you $10. Many people hinder themselves thinking of this perfect scenario that they need, all this extravagance in order to do what they do. Do what you can with what you have.
Just know this…most fail, this is a VERY difficult profession. Pick your lane, perfect your mind and talents, create don’t make, realize that as much as this is an act of love it is a business. Foster as much patience as you can muster. This is nowhere near fast money. If you have to have a regular job to maintain creating art then do it. Or be an idiot like me, give up every comfort I have had, go full in, drive yourself crazy, work 16 hours a day and eat when you can.
If you want to do this…you’ll find a way.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Currently I have a solo exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center at 78 e. Washington in Chicago. Recto/Verso: Duality of a Fragile Ego includes 20 new works. 10 abstract “paintings” and sculptures as well as 10 works that comprise #theselfproject. #theselfproject is an interactive installation based off of selfies where I do something that has not been done in art before. Using social media, namely Instagram, as a medium as opposed to just somewhere to post a picture. Since the composition is dependent on the viewer taking a picture, a new work of art is created with each selfie. Instagram is used to create a community online of peoplethat Identify with the same introspective phrases etched in each mirror.
I am slated to have an exhibition in Hyde Park later on in the summer and some other possible exhibitions later this year.
People can also go to my website www.imadeyoureadthis.com and view work. My most up to date catalog would be Instagram under Cleveland dean.
People can support my work by acquiring my work, spreading the word reviewing and connecting me with individuals in the arts. Currently in Chicago, as I work with many consultants and such, I am independent. All serious people have to do is reach out. In addition, I can be supported via my patreon page found at www.patreon.com/clevelanddean. Support isn’t simply showing face at exhibitions. Artists need to eat as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.imadeyoureadthis.com
- Email: info@imadeyoureadthis.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/clevelanddean
Image Credit:
Agnieszka Kulon, Nathaniel Smith
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