As an artist, Cedric Smith has made a career of using his talents to create teachable moments.
Such is the case with his most recent exhibition, “Horsepower,” a 16-piece collection of paintings highlighting African-American cowboys, horsemen, soldiers, and hunters.
The collection was inspired by an encounter Smith had with a boy inside his Macon studio. She was working on one of the eventual “Horsepower” pieces when the boy walked by and saw her.
“And he said, ‘I didn’t know blacks rode horses,’” Smith said.
It was something of a lightening moment for Smith, a self-proclaimed fan of Western movies. And as he always does when it comes to his paintings, he began to delve deeper and deeper into his subject matter. He soon learned that 25% of the cowboys at the time were African American. As he read further, he learned that many of the original Kentucky Derby jockeys were also African-American.
“They won a lot of the races back then, but then when the money started to rise they were pushed out bit by bit,” he said.
He read about the Civil War and how African American Union soldiers used horses during battles.
As always happens when he’s working, Smith began to think that if he didn’t know about these things, probably a lot of others didn’t either. And so he began to paint the collection in hopes of using it as an educational tool.
“[People] come see the show. They see these images of Negroes on horseback, and maybe they would go and start doing their own research, digging and learning things on their own,” he said.
The collection complements the overall theme of Smith’s work.
“My goal with my painting has always been about…the contributions that black people have made to America,” he said.
Smith’s journey into the art world is an inspiring story in itself. Although he loved painting, he never set out to be an artist; he didn’t think there was a career in it. So instead, he got a job cutting hair at a barbershop, one that had several empty walls. Smith soon began filling those walls with his own original pieces and even sold a few here and there.
One day, he was cutting the hair of a Louisiana artist when he overheard the man talking to someone about his art studio in downtown Atlanta. Smith was soon invited to visit him, and it was a life-changing moment for him.
“After leaving his studio, I went back to work the next day and put in a two-week notice,” he said.
Smith eventually took his paintings to a gallery and began to do more and more exhibitions. Today he is a full-time artist with his own studio, but even his early work had a specific message. His early paintings were inspired by the lyrics to the Public Enemy rap song “Fight the Power,” which read, “Most of my heroes don’t appear on any stamps.”
Just as he did with “Horsepower,” Smith took the idea and began doing his own research.
“You didn’t see images of black people in them, so that was my first series,” he said. “I started doing these postage stamp images and I would put them black, but I was just putting the everyday person like the postman or a teacher…”
He soon moved on to currency and then magazine covers, all the while sparking curiosity and sparking conversation.
“With me, he’s always trying to put a positive spin on black images because it’s such a negative portrayal in a lot of ways, like in the news or whatever, so I’m always trying to put a spin on it and show [that] there are very good people here who are doing things, and they are contributing and they are making history and they are as American as anything else,” he said.
As with all of her paintings, she said she hopes the “Horsepower” exhibit will inspire curiosity and empathy.
“In many ways, we all walk in our own bubble and don’t put ourselves in other people’s shoes. So I just hope that some people who see a show like this for a moment, even if it’s just for a while after the show, put themselves in that person’s shoes and have more empathy and understanding and also some gratitude towards the people. that you don’t normally see every day.”
The “Horsepower” exhibit began January 12 and will be on view at Georgia College & State University’s Ennis Hall from 1-4 pm on January 17, 19-20, 24, 26-27, 31 and 2. and February 3, 7 and 9.
