Creation and Confidence

Tyler Thrasher has been fascinated with science all his life. Growing up in Tulsa, he described himself as a really nerdy and curious kid with a vivid imagination—although for much of his youth, Thrasher never thought those attributes would come in handy, much less become the foundation of a career. He just assumed he would drift away from his childhood interests, like many adults do.

That never really happened. The same curiosity and nerdy passion for the unknown led Thrasher to become one of the most unusual artists in Oklahoma, as he refuses to just be part of the crowd and accept the status quo. The 31-year-old artist, author, entrepreneur and teacher is led by an undying search for answers, which comes to the forefront in his work.

“I am very big on asking questions, questioning the status quo, interrogating the rules of life,” Thrasher says. “Like, it is hard for me to just blindly accept what’s been given to me, and there’s a lot of liberation in that. I just hope that I have kids that when they grow up, they feel the freedom and the right to ask questions and to press further if something is presented to them without any evidence. I hope they feel the freedom to explore and ask questions in their life.”

Thrasher’s inquisitiveness has led him down many different paths while never quenching his intense curiosity. He’s written three books, sells handmade plushie toys and puts out a newsletter.

“I think I’ve always had a creative mind … I was always the really nerdy, curious kid and just had a very vivid imagination growing up,” Thrasher says. “I went to high school, explored art, visual art; took some extensive chemistry classes, fell in love with chemistry and then spent my years after high school wondering, ‘How can I combine art and chemistry?’ That turned into a lot of self-exploratory experiments and things like that.”

Thrasher said he got into caving while in college and spent a lot of time underground around minerals. Then while in a crystal shop he saw a display of synthetic crystals and decided he wanted to try growing his own.

“Then one day I was like, ‘Well, what if I put a dead bug in the jar with the crystals and it turned into a crystallized insect?” Thrasher recounted. “It was just a ‘f-around and find out’ sort of thing, and I pulled out this crystallized insect. I absolutely freaked out and then shared that on the internet and it took off.”

With the encouragement of his wife Molly, Thrasher departed from a career path in computer animation and bet on himself and his art. He held his first art show in 2015 and hasn’t looked back since.

Thrasher said his work explores the idea of combining molecular geometry and crystalline structures with organic surfaces as an homage to ancient and esoteric alchemy. Describing his art is almost as difficult as deciphering the science behind it—luckily for him, he has social media to help. His Instagram page (TylerThrasherart), which has just shy of 500k followers, details current and past projects, while giving him a platform to speak on issues social issues as well.

For visitors, it gives those who have an interest in his art a foundation for the method to his madness, so to speak.

“I just pull up my Instagram,” Thrasher says with a laugh. “I get this a lot: People are like, ‘What do you do?’ I’m like, ‘I’m an artist and a citizen scientist.’ ‘Okay, what does that mean?’ I’m like, ‘Oh Lord, if I tell them I have to show them.’ It’s hard for a lot of people to visualize synthetic opal or crystallized insects. So, I find myself like, ‘Well, let me just show you.’ And then from there I kind of get the same reaction. People are like, ‘Oh, holy s**t.’”

Thrasher is currently working on opalized specimens—encasing dead flowers, dried flowers, dead insects, in synthetic opal to make light-refracting, color-changing crystals surrounding the organic material.

"I think I've always had a creative mind... I fell in love with chemistry and then spent my years after high school wondering, 'How can I combine art and chemistry?'" –Tyler Thrasher

“That, to me, is a completely novel, fun idea that I think is really hard for people to picture until you show them,” Thrasher says. “Even then, they’re not quite sure if they get it. But I love trying to explain it to people.”

While it may seem like Thrasher has been living his best life, it has not been all rainbows. He found he couldn’t enjoy his successes and victories for a long time because of some of those in his circle. He was surrounded by people who didn’t have his outlook on life and lived miserable lives.

“That’s just kind of what I was seeing. So when things for me started going the route where I felt, ‘This is genuine, this is true, this feels aligned with who I am and my dreams are coming true,’ at first, I had a lot of guilt,” Thrasher says. “What did I do to deserve this? Why is this working for me but not for these people? And can someone come and take it all away from me at any moment? I got a lot of that from friends and family. I couldn’t tell them things were going good; I started becoming sensitive to the people that would just roll their eyes.”

Despite all he had done, Thrasher was not happy with his career. So he went out and got some help.

“Those were my fears and anxieties and a lot of guilt, and it took a lot of therapy and still does,” he says. “It took a lot for me to be like it’s OK for a person of color to succeed and to do good, and to have life work out for them despite what the narrative tells us.”

Thrasher didn’t cut the negative people out of his life, but he did choose to share fewer of his success stories with them. His next step was to let more people into his circle who he knew would be a positive influence on him.

“I spend a lot of time talking to successful black women. They have a huge hill to climb, and when I see them just own their s**t outright, I’m like, ‘If they can, maybe I can,’” Thrasher says. “Even if I don’t feel like I can, I will just fake it until I make it. I’ll just fake it until I finally feel like I deserve a good thing.”

Thrasher said currently his mentality is 50/50 in terms of how much he is faking the confidence he exudes. Much like one of his science and art projects, he plans to keep working on himself until he gets it just right.

“I say it’s a lot easier now. I have a whole team and they’re very proud of me, very supportive. If I succeed, they succeed,” Thrasher said. “When we have really big kick-ass art drops, they all get a piece. If you’re in my circle, you’re going to move with me and my team. I can’t treat myself like s**t because I’m going to treat them like s**t. And if I want them to feel good and proud of what they’re doing, then I have to feel good and proud about what I’m doing.

“I’m making progress.”

But Thrasher isn’t doing it just for himself. He wants to set an example for his sons Nova and Luca so that whatever stumbling blocks he experienced, they will have a road map to maneuver through them.

“I hope I’m living a life where my kids can see someone following their ideas, being authentic and knowing that you’re allowed to do that,” Thrasher says. “I hope that the things that I struggle to accept and be proud of, I’m showing my kids and giving them a head start [so] that they can very easily believe they deserve good things and that they pursue their ideas. I think my wife and I are doing an amazing job with our boys, and I hope they grow up feeling pretty badass that they have a dad who does what he does for a job and they can do whatever they want.”