Suzie Zuzek DePoo 1920-2011

Suzie DePoo’s career spanned many decades. Although Suzie is best celebrated for her watercolors and ceramic tile creations, she also worked in reclaimed driftwood, old glass from Bottle Beach, wire, and just about anything that can be shaped or painted. Suzie graduated from the Pratt Institute and studied at the Art Student’s League in NYC on the GI Bill after serving in WWII. Her classical training at Pratt prepared her for thirty years of textile design for Lilly Pulitzer at Key West Handprints. The Handprint factory produced fabulous serigraphic works with natural dyes on cotton and Suzie was selected to design intricate representational fauna and floral, landscape and seascape patterns reflecting the natural beauty of the Keys. On what would have been her 100th birthday the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt mounted a retrospective of her textile designs. Her fine art pieces, monochromatic or vivid in color, would incorporate classic literary influences; mermaids, unicorns, and Biblical references. A large ceramic tile composition graces the Monroe County Library. She also created originals for the Pier House and painted the piano for the bar. Other examples of her work include the entire ceiling, walls and doors of David Wolkowsky's fabled Ballast Key residence, elegantly treated with colorful painting on wood. Suzie Zuzek de Poo, continued to weave a rich legacy into the fabric of Key West’s artistic archives well into her ninth decade.