Cedric Tai took the scenic route from Northville High School to the Tipping Point Theatre.

It went from Northville to East Lansing through Scandinavia and Europe to Detroit and back again.

Three of the successful artist's pieces of work are on display in the lobby of the theater during its current run of the play, "Guys On Ice."

Having his art on display at what he calls one of Northville's "coolest" things is just part of his dream to become one of the area's most influential and important artists.

"Everything I ever dreamed I would be doing today 10 years ago has happened," Tai told Northville Patch. "To make art in Detroit, to teach at (the College for Creative Studies), to have my art seen and appreciated all over the map…it's everything I've ever wanted."

Cedric (pronounced SEE-DRICK as he won't hesitate to correct) Tai was born in 1985 and grew up in Northville. He graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in fine arts and a teaching certificate. He has a studio practice at the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit, has volunteered as a teacher at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit and is a teacher at Detroit's College for Creative Studies.

In 2006, Tai backpacked from the Netherlands to Spain on a journey "in search of the post-modern condition" with a MSU professor and a handful of other artists.

His art has been on display and in contests all over Michigan and into Ohio, Illinois and Canada.

At the time this story is being posted Tai's work is featured :

• Boutique, A Compuware Gallery. Inside the Compuware headquarters, downtown Detroit.
• Gallery Project. 215 S. Fourth Ave., Ann Arbor.
• Re: View Contemporary. 444 W. Willis St., Units 111 and 112, Detroit.
• Pure Detroit. As part of the organizations Moving Walls Exhibition.

Tai was awarded a Kresge Artist Fellowship in 2009 by Kresge Arts Detroit. The program granted 18 Detroit area artists $25,000 each to explore, experiment and develop their work over a year-long period.

Gilda Snowden is another fellowship recipient.

"I have respected his enthusiasm, his work ethic, his energies and the fact that he finds it important to spread the word about what is happening in the arts community here," Snowden said.

Tai said he doesn't fear using any available method to create art. He uses everything from routers and laser-cutting tools to ink, spray paint, and silkscreen techniques to colored glue sticks he found at a dollar store. There are no limits to what he will use or how he will use it, he said.

Other artists have taken notice of that fact.

"Cedric does some interesting abstract work dealing with transparency and multiple layers," said Mary Fortuna, another Detroit artist and exhibitions director at the Rochester-based Paint Creek Center for the Arts. "He experiments freely and allows chance to play an important part in his work."

Tai's blog can be read at ceedric.blogspot.com and his Web site is at cedrictai.com. "Guys On Ice," runs at the Tipping Point Theatre until Jan. 1, 2011.