Reed Thomason was a scholarship student at Syracuse University and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1961. In his senior year he was the winner of the Hiram Gee Fellowship in Painting. He studied portraiture with John Teyral at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

During his years in the Cleveland area Thomason worked at American Greetings and taught at the Cooper School of Art and the Cleveland Institute of Art. He exhibited in a number of shows locally. He designed scenery and costumes for the Canton Civic Ballet, did commissions for the Rowfant Club, and illustrated two cookbooks for the Junior Women's Committee of the Cleveland Orchestra: Bach's Lunch: Picnic and Patio Classics, 1971, and Bach for More: Fireside Classics, 1975.

Shortly after the completion of the Lakewood Public Library mural, Thomason moved to San Diego where he continued painting, did courtroom illustration and freelance commercial work. For the past 10 years he has resided in Syracuse.

Cleveland painter, graphic artist and ceramicist, Marvin Smith, spoke about the Cooper School of Art era in an interview for the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve Oral History Project. He recalls days of social activism and publication of a work titled Disorientation Handbook. "We had terrific people in there," says Smith. "Reed Thomason. Most people in the art scene around here will remember him... He drew like a Renaissance giant."