We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cebron Bradford. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cebron below.

Hi Cebron, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

For myself a major risk I’ve taken is the whole idea of calling myself a professional artist and owning the steps and the commitment it requires to live up to that standard. Making the change wasn’t something that happened all at once. I would say it started by realizing that my success as an artist is self-directed and not contingent upon stereotypes I was given or observed. The second half of that risk is being open to take on more by realizing pursing art and being an academic isn’t an either or but rather could feed into both and rather make me better in both areas of focus.

Art was something I treated like a childhood hobby for most of my adult life. I was always told I could do art once I got established in my career. I even planned to open a gallery after retirement. The primary message I received from many outlets was that being an artist is unsustainable and that they’re not pursuing viable successful lives.

And yet, for the life of me, I couldn’t shake the need to create. So I created, I cooked, painted, sewed, but put it on the back burner and kept it hidden.

This changed when my cousin gave me an opportunity to return to art in Dec. 2021 when he invited me to a group show where he would be my mentor. I hadn’t painted for a show since 2014 and even then I didn’t even know how to make it as a professional. I was introduced to other artists and got to see his life up-close and it challenged the narrative I had been given. Because of the challenge, I had to investigate what it means to be an artist and I slowly started to accept the title; especially as I started to get booked for more shows.

From there, I started to reach out and network with other artists and organizations. In doing so I ran into another perspective barrier; having the audacity to have a hobby as a doctoral student. And I found myself hiding my artistic side again to peers in the academic world and vice versa. Especially professors and chairs. I would work a fulltime job, take time to work on my dissertation, then go and set up a gallery. While trying to keep it all secret. I was about to burn out and my greatest fear wasn’t my health but what my chair would think.

It wasn’t until I realized that taking time away to work on art allowed me to reflect on research and spending time in research challenged my processes in how I made art. Rather than continue this double life I shared how both played into my process. Then I started seeking out peers who had that same balance.

What I found is that there were academics in PhD programs who were looking to reengage in their own artistic outlets, but also there was a deeper value I was able to provide by being transparent. But also there is a push in academia to challenge the culture of dedicating your all to just research or the idea of “publish or die” and sharing my duality is helping to be an example of balance that can exist between your creative side vs your academic research side.

The problem I was facing with my risk was to challenge ideas that I had picked up from others. I wanted success and became so intrenched in the advice that artists aren’t successful or that art is a hobby and academia is more important; that I gave up agency in my own life. This wasn’t working for me; so I took a risk and stepped away from the guide rails I had been given so that I could pursue a path more true to myself.

Cebron, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Currently I am an artist that focuses in abstract fabric sculpture, I am a doctoral student earning their DBA in Data Analysis, and I am a Director of Risk Management as a Behavioral Hospital. My route to get here was not a straight line and was really unique to myself.

For art, I took an eight year hiatus to just live life. I had a painting here and there but really, nothing being produced. Now I speak on the need for support of black artists and reaching for equity in opportunities for marginalized groups in art. I am also an art currator.

I got to this point in life by establishing a great network filled by friends that were invested in the community and wanted to bring art to people. And as I accepted new opportunities I reached out to friends who were artists that hadn’t had a chance to show and shared my opportunities with them. I think there’s a desire to operate from a scarcity mindset, where you don’t share opportunities and you place yourself first. But my success has been from sharing my opportunities and learning to play the background character. Am I creating a program and experience that artists and attendees feel valued?

As an academic, I am not shy about stating that I absolutely hated school as a child. As I would learn later I had a learning disability that hindered my ability to enjoy school. I recall keeping a yearly countdown until I was old enough to drop out of high school in the 3rd grade. It wasn’t until I had teachers and saw a better environment that the mindset really changed. While my mother was the school counselor and showed me colleges, it wasn’t until I saw art installations at UCSB, UCLA, and their campuses that I thought…school may be fun. However, it wasn’t until college that I could own how I learned. I discovered during my Masters program that I loved learning and if anything, I am curious to learn and explore more. But it wasn’t until I lost my dad that I realized, I wanted to pursue a degree that allowed me to research how to make peoples lives better. During his time being hospitalized there were issues involving race and patient care that really jarred me. It’s why I went into data and my research focus is in healthcare.

As a Director of PI/Risk Management for a Behavioral Hospital, I apply my prior career experience to investigate and ensure high quality healthcare is provided to patients. I use what I’ve seen my family experience in healthcare as a motivation to improve on patient care. I draw on my heavy background in data analysis to help create and measure improvement programs.

Clients and people who I work with can expect that I will being them insights into their questions or business concerns that are data driven, well examined, and are established on the basis of the most relevant research. This also goes for art, where promotion, installation, and even curation of galleries is concerned.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think what has helped me build my reputation the most within my market is being genuine in who I am and coming in with vulnerability and humility into my roles. One thing everyone who works with me can say, is that I become a student of the environment.

A few examples are a recent art show I curated. I wanted talent that hadn’t been featured in West Seattle, and I wanted to deliver a genuine experience for those who attended. So, I took a risk. Rather than give them set parameters around what I wanted them to submit in terms of art, I told them the “Why” behind the show. And I told them to only bring submissions that represent themselves without a narrative around it. Being a researcher, I looked at the common threads between their work and wove together the narrative of the experience. I let their work determine the show’s theme. And we sold a lot of art that night. But we also had a lot of people connect to the artists and request more art from them.

Your network doesn’t grow from disingenuous attempts to connect but rather genuine commonality. And I helped them build their networks and return clients because I make their unique view on life the spotlight and used that to help forge connection with the market/community.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Going through business school and even a business doctoral program, you learn about scarcity. You also learn that the world is eat or be eaten.

That very much isn’t me and hasn’t worked for me. Rather, I had to learn that I need to create spaces or situations where everyone can eat.

I unlearned this gradually in school or collaborative art projects where each person wanted to be featured more prominently. Usually the end result was burnout, ruined relationships, and a bad product. I think this really changed for me when I worked with Amazon and saw how we were able to turn out better project results by making sure everyone’s needs were met and we found a way to meet everyone’s goal in one way or the other.

This is when I remembered a piece of advice I was given early on, “Don’t worry about money or recognition, that will come no matter what. Just focus on getting good at what you do and making sure the product is solid. Everything else will fall into place.” And I apply this to my relationships and how I do business. What will render the best outcome for everyone involved? Then, how do we get paid/taken care of?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cebronkylebradford.com
• Instagram: cebreazypaints
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cebronkylebradford/