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

Cedric, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

After four years of teaching elementary art, I quit the profession to purse a career as a full time artist. Creatively, I always used oil painting as a means of expression, but with the free time that I gained from not working a typical 9-5, I began experimenting with other mediums such as clothing design and tattooing.

Cedric, 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?

My name is ZIZIN and I am a full time artist working out of central Massachusetts. I paint with oils, I deign apparel and I tattoo.

I recently took the leap of faith into becoming an artist full time because teaching and the culture of public education was deteriorating me both physically and mentally. I have always been a painter, however I was so emotionally drained from my previous career (and life in general) that I felt I needed a fresh start in a new medium. I soon started experimenting with bleach art and printmaking because I felt it was a medium that had not yet fully been perfected and was more sustainable than other forms of creating imagery on apparel. Like my paintings, the images on my t-shirt reflect my personality and push the boundaries of what one would normally see on a piece of apparel. My artwork reflects a view into human sickness, healing, spirits and a bit of humor which is the shock value of the nude human body (a criticism of our societies toxic view of the sexualization and fetishization of a nude form).

Once I perfected my formula of bleach printmaking, I began selling clothing at local markets as well as online. I quickly began meeting a lot of local artists and noticed that my clothing especially attracted tattoo artists’. After about six months of selling clothing, I met a tattooer who offered a tattoo apprenticeship, and for the past year I have been tattooing as well as oil painting and selling clothing. Anything to pay the bills.

I think the main thing that I want potential clients to know about me is that I make art for myself and no one else. I try very hard to convey the spectrum of life on this planet; the dark, the light, the humorous and the beauty of the mundane. I love to express contemporary genre scenes. It is of great importance for artists to showcase problems in modern society while also occasionally poking fun and finding humor in the insanity that is life.
I try very hard to reflect this.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I have no particular goal that is driving my creative journey. I simply create because if I don’t my mind starts to rot and I begin feeling all sick and gross. I create because it is a spiritual necessity and it is what feels right. I find a fulfillment out of creating art which can’t be replaced by anything else. I wake up every morning and do what feels right for the day. Some days days it is painting, other days it is designing shirts or tattoos.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I feel that non-creatives do not understand how much of a necessity it is for artists to create. For some (like me) it is almost more important than eating or drinking water. Most non-creatives focus their energy more on making money and become baffled and confused and think that artists who are broke are “lazy” and just wanna make art all day and not get a real job. They do not understand that making art is a spiritual calling of sorts and is much more important that “getting a real job.”

Contact Info:

• Website: zizin.org
• Instagram: instagram.com/zizin_art instagram.com/zizin_apparel instagram.com/zizin_tattoo