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Friday Five with Suzanne Tick

Suzanne Tick, founder of Suzanne Tick Inc., specializes in materials, brand strategy, and design development for commercial and residential interiors. Within the industry she’s known for her intelligent, enthusiastic approach to design, as well as her desire to provide innovative solutions. She’s also currently a Design Consultant for Tarkett on brand strategy and product development, serves as Creative Director at LUUM, and design partner with Skyline Design. In addition to her day jobs, Suzanne has a hand-weaving practice where she creates woven sculptures from repurposed materials. Her work has been exhibited in MoMA, Cooper Hewitt, MAD, and Art Basel. Suzanne’s passions include a scholarly study and practice of Vedic meditation with Thom Knoles and The Soft Road, travel, gardening, cooking, and being a mom to her beautiful adult son, Gabe, and two cats named Cupid and Psyche. Today she’s sharing more about them with us for Friday Five.

Photo courtesy of Suzanne Tick

1. Twilight // Dawn // Meditation
Vedic meditation is a part of my everyday life experience and has greatly influenced my process, adaptability, and responsiveness to human life. Contemplation has an evolutionary power that propels a significant effect on creation as a whole. The transitioning hours between dawn and dusk are the best time to meditate. During the week however, we meditate as a team in the studio during the afternoon, at 3:00pm. On the weekends, I prefer the gloaming hours, getting closer to nature.

Top Photo by Martin Crook, Bottom Photo by Adrian Wilson

2. Weaving
My hand-weaving practice is what holds me together. This can be traced back to my childhood and being raised in a third-generation scrap metal yard in the Midwest. The phenomenology of alchemy and transforming one material into another, ultimately creating a work of art, is what my weavings have been centered around. The materials in my weavings are discarded objects, whether it’s recycled wire hangers or found mylar balloons. The beauty of altering the state of found materials engages the mind in a totally different way. There’s this natural perfection when you don’t try to control things and let the material be the material.

Photo courtesy of Suzanne Tick

3. Travel
As a child, my father would encourage me to write daily haiku poems. He had a great collection of books on Asian philosophies and cultures. That was very impactful for me, and with good fortune as a textile designer, I have been lucky enough to travel. Whether it’s visiting Tibet, Japan, or India – not only working with textile mills, but also being able to explore architecture, food, music, and spiritual philosophies around the world, has been informative and extraordinary.

Photo courtesy of Suzanne Tick

4. Artists who use light as a medium
Light has always interested me. In Marfa, Texas, the permanent installations of Dan Flavin and Robert Irwin – six converted military barracks – are a sheer delight! Their ability to change a spatial element with light, color, non-color, and the environment always intrigues. The feeling that emanates for me changes from one season or time of day to the next. Within these designed spaces there is a quiet meditative component, plus a dream-like sensation. This otherworldly feeling that I love and can’t live without. I cherish those visits.

Photo by Martin Crook

5. Tick Studio
I work and live out of a townhouse in the East Village in New York, and surround myself with a team of creative, multi-generational individuals. Having everyone working together in my home, and the beauty of having this wonderful group under one roof, brings another life and voice into my work-life situation. It’s like an extended family. Ever changing, ever growing, and evolving. Creation Operation is always a core theme in our studio. Always better together.

Kelly Beall is Director of Branded Content at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based writer and designer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, from Fashion Plates to MoMA and far beyond. When not searching out the visual arts, she's likely sharing her favorite finds with others. Kelly can also be found tracking down new music, teaching herself to play the ukulele, or on the couch with her three pets – Bebe, Rainey, and Remy. Find her @designcrush on social.