The youngest of five children, Suzanne spent her childhood in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1992, she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Art degree at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. While attending the University of Arizona, Suzanne’s major course of study was art history, in addition to a minor in studio art. She had the opportunity to work at the University of Arizona Museum of Art, in addition to being an intern for the prestigious Center for Creative Photography on the University of Arizona campus. After graduation, Suzanne was an intern in the legal department of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Her interest in law led to earning a Paralegal Certificate at Webster University in St. Louis, and a career as a litigation paralegal.
Throughout her work as a paralegal, she continued to draw and paint. Her first gallery show was on February 2, 1997 at De Grazia’s Little Gallery, on the grounds of De Grazia’s Gallery in the Sun, a highly popular museum of deceased artist Ted De Grazia, in Tucson, Arizona. This show, “Botanical Gardens” consisted of watercolor paintings inspired by the Missouri Botanical Gardens and the Tucson Botanical Gardens.
In 1998, Suzanne married Matt Villella, an Air Force fighter pilot. Catherine, Anthony, and Olivia joined their family. Suzanne continued to paint and volunteer in art departments at her children’s schools.
In 2010, Suzanne chose to share her passion for art as an art instructor at Art Starts Here, a local studio in Las Vegas, where she taught children’s art classes and adult workshops. It is through teaching and her interactions with her students, she became inspired to renew her belief in her own painting.
She held a solo show at Art Starts Here in April 2012. From 2012-2013, Suzanne lived in Valdosta, GA, and showed her work regularly at the popular boutique, City Market. Her work was also shown in the largest, ever “Spring into Art” show at the Turner Center for the Arts in the Spring of 2013. In 2013, she relocated to Mechanicsburg, PA and was represented by Brath and Hughes Fine Art Gallery. She showed her work in “A Convergence of Visual Definitions” in Brooklyn, NY in 2013. She was also selected to present her work in “Women in Art,” a juried show at the Las Laguna Galley in Laguna Beach, CA. Suzanne lived in Germany, where she was represented by Galerie Atelier 35 in Landstuhl, Germany. She returned to show her work at the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun Little Gallery in 2019, and has enjoyed being juried into numerous shows in Southern Arizona since then.
Suzanne and her family have settled in Tucson, Arizona. Her work can be found at the Southern Arizona Arts Guild Gallery, 2905 E Skyline Drive, Suite 141 at La Encantada, and downtown at the Tucson Gallery at the Proper Shops, 300 E Congress Street. Suzanne is proudly serving as the President of the Southern Arizona Arts Guild, and can be reached at suzannevillella@gmail.com.
