Featured Artist of the Week

Vickie Suarez

“I was able to make art without feeling there was a right way or a wrong way — just my way,” says Fort Lauderdale’s Vickie Suarez, recalling her elementary school art class. She did not, however, enjoy such freedom in her photography classes at Florida International University. “You’d end up having to go out to find different things to shoot, lots of objects in black and white,” says Suarez, who earned a bachelor of fine arts, though she started out as a business major.

After graduation, Suarez set up a home studio, where she concentrated on macabre portraits and stark shots of household objects. Many of these images appear in her Submerge and Dream series.

“When I start a new series, I do a lot of sketches to work out the composition,” the 31-year-old Suarez explains. “Then, I go out and start to stockpile props” — such as chocolate syrup. Suarez’s art has a decidedly dark feel, which she attributes more to her appreciation for film noir and her own dreams than to the work of other still photographers. She keeps a dream journal and cites Blue Velvet director David Lynch as a major influence.

Suarez has participated in several group shows and had a recent solo exhibition at Galerie Macabre in Fort Lauderdale. “My reason for becoming an artist was because I enjoy doing it,” she admits. “I enjoy the entire process involved when I photograph. Regardless of where it ends up, it still begins as that fun class in elementary school. I like coming to that class every day.”

— W Kelley Lucas