We recently connected with Paz Suay and have shared our conversation below.

Paz, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on was establishing in 2015 the art program for the first Montessori and British school in Valencia, Spain. First, I created a program for Children’s House students (3 to 6 years old), and over the next two years, as the school needs expanded, I developed an art program for 6 to 9-year-old students or, Workshop I.

To do so, I examined and considered the Montessori International art approach as well as the Spanish, British, and American art curriculums for elementary schools. It was humbling to admit that where the British and Spanish art programs for young children fell into a too vague or too academic box, the American one seemed the most appropriate for that age range and inspired me to center the art program based in Montessori open and process-oriented projects around the Elements and Principles of Art.

Teaching and practicing these projects to and with little creative minds was a transformative experience that led to my interest in creating abstract, sensorial, and process-oriented work and appreciating art movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Cubism, and Color Field fondly.

Paz, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hi! My name is Paz Suay, and I am a painter and graphic designer living and working in Nashville, Tennessee. I grew up in a family of artists and architects in Valencia, Spain, which I’m pretty sure influenced my choice to study Architecture and Fine Arts. After a few years in college, graphic design became a natural tool. I decided to deepen my knowledge in this field to work more comfortably as a freelance graphic designer. This creative job allowed me to change locations, move internationally, paint, study, and explore various creative interests, such as singing, for several years.

Back in Valencia in 2010, after a couple of influential years in Brooklyn and becoming a first-time mother, I joined an advanced course in Illustration and exhibited my work with a group of illustrators for several years until, in 2015, I focused on creating the art program and teaching at Valencia Montessori School. Working, teaching, and learning from kids was a nurturing and groundbreaking experience that led to my current interest and appreciation of abstract art. My artistic practice expanded, and along with my earlier figurative paintings, I began creating abstract color field compositions, formal minimalistic pieces, and process-oriented bodies of work based on the Elements and Principles of Art and cultural and autobiographical aspects.

After moving and living between Valencia and Nashville for a few years, I moved back to Tennessee in 2021. In 2022, I co-founded FastFluidField, a local artist collective, and began exhibiting and selling work in galleries and group events in Nashville. This newer, abstract body of work creates series that complement each other and serve as a diary of my process as an artist. It relates to the environment and surrounding culture and keeps expanding as my interests evolve. Since co-creating FFF, I’ve connected and collaborated with other local artists’ collectives, such as Blend, Coop, Nashville Collage Collective, and Buchanan Arts. I have a few group shows coming in 2025 and 2026 in Nashville, and I am currently working on expanding my outreach area. I hope you can come to one of my next shows!

I hope you can come to one of my next shows!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to learn to appreciate that my journey was valuable. It took me many years to realize that my particular path, with its turns and meanderings, specifically makes my art interesting and shapes my art direction. It is the source of depth and meaning.

But, for a long time, I didn’t see that and felt I didn’t have the right credentials to call myself an artist. Studying architecture and graphic design, but only two years of Fine Art School at UMH, in Altea, Spain, wasn’t what I thought I needed to be ready to start creating a solid body of work and exhibit it. Interestingly, and opposingly to my beliefs, I moved to Brooklyn shortly after my time in Altea and started creating studies of my apartment and neighborhood, that I still love.

Even though I kept creating art, illustration, and graphic design for many years and studied illustration and various crafts, from monotypes at Columbia University in NY to screen printing or embroidery workshops, I didn’t feel it was enough to think of myself as an artist. Well, I should note that exhibiting my illustration work with my illustration group was the first step to feeling stronger about seeing myself as an artist. But it was teaching and revisiting art history, mediums, and my own art practice that made me feel fully convinced about it. It finally clicked!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I revisit my journey from the first steps of pre-art school to what I am pursuing today, I see a story of resilience. Despite the external and internal obstacles I met along the way, I managed to change and transition disciplines to stay creative and connected to my aesthetic aspirations.

From time to time, an image of my 9-year-old self enjoying exchanging drawings with her school pals, collecting papers and images, illustrating work at school, and dreaming about all her creative aspirations comes to my mind, and I see I’ve fulfilled many of these.

Persevering has been the key ingredient to becoming the artist I knew deep down I was. It led to the unfolding and development of art styles and series my younger self couldn’t imagine yet.

So, my advice to a creative feeling stuck in self-doubt, is to keep going until you see enough evidence to prove it wrong.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pazsuay.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pazsuay/

Image Credits

01_Feature, studio image by Lain York.

01_Color Theory at VMS Caterpillar Class, February 2016, image by Jimena Delgado.

02_FFF group image by Carl A.

03_Paz at Rockwall gallery image by Kevin Wisniewski.

04_05_06_images by Josh Rouse.

07_Promotional Flyer image by Zeitgeist Gallery.