Who she is
An individual made of many vanishing points, textures and colours. Noticeable for her way of walking in which harmony and constant tempo perhaps are not the most appropriate descriptive words, more of an improvisational rhythm is her signature note. Step after misstep, securely she moves to the daily unknown.
Her Work
Movement, the key element to her art and soul. Nothing is static, even the most apparent straight line is a curve in this infinite universe. There is sound and dance in her art as her latin background influences her mind on each stroke. As the eye continuously travels across the flat canvas that hosts her paintings, the constant transformation of the piece reveals new possibilities and ideas about the world to the viewer. Obsessed over the incomprehensible energy that allows life to happen, not only from a materialistic perspective but within our weird concept of soul and consciousness.
Serious Biographical Note
On a more serious note, she was born in Colombia in the 80s, lived in the most terrifying times of drug cartels and guerrillas urging her mum to send her to an exchange student programme to the United States after graduating from high school. She lived with an American host family while attending high school for a year. During that year, she got to live as a teenager again as she lived there at a much slower tempo in an almost utopic lifestyle. Six months into the programme she had to grieve the death of her father at a distance. This turmoil moment pushed her to make a decision to move to the US on a more permanent basis to pursue my Fine Arts bachelor degree.
Fine Arts Degree
She successfully graduated in 2010 from Montclair State University, and moved forward with her career as an industrial designer. For the following 15 years, she worked as a clock designer, toy designer, lastly soft goods and luggage designer. She traveled the world while working for Samsonite as she went to China several times to meet with factories to design and oversee manufacturing processes.
Moved Across the Pond
In 2019, she decided her life felt too comfortable and needed a new challenge not only from a personal point of view but professionally. She felt unease knowing that her designs were contributing to our mass production and consumeristic addiction which ultimately contributed to polluting our planet. So here she is, living in a little town in the north of England under cloudy and rainy skies after finishing a MSc in Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, and Design. A degree which did not open very prosperous paths into her “corporate career” and instead led her to today, not doing any of those practices but being an artist.
The Curve Ball
To be honest, the sequence of events was not as straightforward. In the summer of 2024, she was diagnosed with breast cancer which forced her to focus on running non-stop for a year through chemo, surgery and radio therapy. During these difficult times, she reunited in a very intimate way with her artistic soul. This experiences lead her to publishing her first book titled: The Graphic Novel of Leticia Suárez. As she says: “Art saved my mind, my mind allowed my body to heal itself”.
Conclusion
Perhaps, all the chaos and moving pieces in her life since she moved away from Colombia in 2004 was so that she moved to Skipton, being forced to stay still for more than a minute and be an artist. Discover through an extremely difficult year of poor health that the energy within ourselves is what makes the time of life continue its rhythm.
For an entertaining conversation, reach her at:
LetiSuarezDesign@gmail.com
