About
(This photograph and others were taken by Patrick Fraser, with wardrobe/set design by Magan Mclaughlin, and hair/makeup by Peggy Wright.)
Susie Frazier is an Emmy-winning artist and producer who's created her own ripples of impact in fine art, architecture and design, self-publishing, the maker movement, and the music industry. She is the only American recipient to receive the International WELL Building Institute's Next Frontier of Design Award, which was for pioneering wellness design concepts, articles, and speeches delivered across America five years before these topics became global trends. For over 15 years, Susie has shared her creative process on various projects through Instagram, Facebook and YouTube including videos about her ideas, partnerships, and recent pursuit of drumming for sensory health, albeit unorthodox in its self-taught approach.
Although she's well-known for her earth-minded visual artistry, her exploration into the synchrony of movement and music through percussion has allowed Susie to begin to see a fresh connection between the music industry and the global wellness movement. "Drumming feels actionable," she explains, "and it's a really effective way to transmute the conditions around us into something beautiful, even when other aspects of our lives feel hopeless," referring to 2024 studies that prove why drum beats and dancing can be more powerful than antidepressants.
Today, Susie has teamed up with rock music icon, David Pattillo of the genre-agnostic band, Strange Majik, to introduce new generations of music fans to his fearlessly expressive songs and soul-stirring performances that offer opportunities for everyone to experience and electrified, unbridled release. As a strong advocate for grounding practices and meditation like Susie, David believes in the power of authenticity, which can be heard in every emotional line of lyrics in over 100+ of his published rock songs.
"Lyrics are a big part of how I spend my time, creatively," says David. "and it's often the words that come through rock music that can be entry point for anyone to feel better and awaken into new ways of thinking."
EARLY CAREER HISTORY:
After leaving the University of Colorado Boulder, and moving to Cleveland in 1992, Susie Frazier spent two years as Art Director for mail order catalog company, J. Marco Galleries. She curated the products, wrote copy, and designed the 68-page catalogs like a magazine, using the early version of Adobe Pagemaker. She led multi-day photo shoots of dozens of products, captured by Dan Morgan of Straight Shooter Photography, which were sold through the retail location at Quaker Square Mall in Akron, OH during the 1990s.
After much experimentation, SUSIE FRAZIER's passion for integrating visual art experiences with live music in the public realm began on April 27, 1997 during her first art show held in an underground 90s cigar bar in Cleveland, called The Humidor, located in The Warehouse District. An amazing DJ delivering deep house music brought the atmosphere alive. It was a perfect experience for Susie's extra-sensory mind.
Susie sold her first pieces that night to locals, and later the bar owner asked her to embellish all his interior tables with her stone mosaic designs. It was a vital one-night partnership that sparked three more decades of art and music collaborations.
Her first wholesale product lines were handmade wood decor items covered with stone mosaics made out of salvaged slate roofing tiles collected from century-old Cleveland properties. The black slate pieces came from Trinity Cathedral. She had a knack for following the local roofers around Ohio City, the neighborhood where she lived, and they were happy to let her walk away with whatever she needed. Everything they were tearing off was just being sent to the dump. The tagline she attached to several hundred products sold through galleries coast to coast and art shows like the Lakewood Arts Festival and Ohio Designer Craftsmen's Winterfair, said, "A Little Piece of Cleveland History" with an explanation of the origin story.
Susie and her stone creations went on to be featured in 1001 Crafts Ideas and Inside Business magazines, then later graced the covers of the "HOME" sections of The Denver Post and The Plain Dealer in Cleveland before Susie evolved into a new medium in 2000.
Later that year, she became involved with e-commerce pioneer, Tim Mueller. They became married in 2000 and had three children by 2005. In 2001, Tim became Deputy Mayor and Chief Development Officer of the City of Cleveland for just over three years under Mayor Jane L. Campbell, the 56th and first and only female mayor to date.
In 2003, Susie founded a team of 15 representatives from Cleveland's corporate, non-profit, and cultural sectors, including longtime marketing professional, Jackie York of Playhouse Square Foundation. The purpose was to deliver a marketing initiative that would be so cool and so artistic that it would help change the perception of Downtown Cleveland. Susie worked with many friends, including Joan Perch from Art at the Powerhouse, and they called it, Sparx in the City. Susie raised $100K in sponsorships and grants annually for four years, negotiated multiple media partnerships, and organized 100+ professional performers, visual artists, and volunteers to present recurring live concerts every Friday on the sidewalks of Downtown Cleveland, in which all performers were paid their requested wages.
The series culminated into city-wide art walk that connected 8 neighborhoods with trolley buses, so the public could explore the art studios and meet all the professional musicians staged outside. Over 50 print stories were generated across Northeast Ohio profiling the participating, professional artists and arts organizations of the region. A 2005 study revealed the program generated $1.5M in economic impact, earning Mayor Campbell a 2005 City Livability Award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a Dominion Community Impact Award, and further recognition from the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. In 2006, Susie turned the program over to the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, after the property owners confirmed their commitment to take over the marketing of their newly ratified Business Improvement District (BID). This allowed the grass roots PR efforts of the region's artists and musicians to be better supported. Susie currently has saved over 100 historic articles, custom publishing spreads, and copies of Cleveland's very first Gallery Guide, written and art directed by Susie, and produced in partnership thanks to the collaborative nature of Tiffany Myroniak at Cleveland Magazine.
In 2005, Susie represented the United States as an American Fellow through the German Marshall Memorial, participating in a transatlantic trip, fostering ties with European leaders, and learning about the actual workings of democracy, as it functions around the world, not just within the United States.
In 2008, Susie was commissioned by Land Studio (formerly Cleveland Public Art) to work with The Detroit Shoreway (now Northwest Neighborhoods) and City Architecture to design what was the largest public art infrastructure project in the City of Cleveland at the time. The public art was included throughout 15 city blocks of streetscape renovations, as part of the many capital improvements slated for the newly developed Gordon Square Arts District. Susie designed the groundbreaking crosswalk designs, under-lit benches, and textured sidewalk pavers, and was awarded a 2009 Neighborhood Improvement Award from Northwest Neighborhoods the year it was completed.
This placemaking project and Susie's specific design contribution was highlighted in a National Endowment for the Arts white paper as a national model for cities looking for innovative urban development strategies that operate in collaboration with local artists.
From 2013 to 2017, Susie became actively involved with Kent, OH-based alternative rock band, The Speedbumps, and jointly managed Leta Records, LLC, the independent record label founded by band leader, singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Erik Uryki. Susie supported the band's regional and college radio tour efforts with shows in front of key audiences, helped implement their reunion shows with the Canton Symphony Orchestra, and provided a cabin in the woods for their 3 most recent albums to be written and recorded.
From 2010 - 2023, she operated the Susie Frazier Showroom, an iconic retail lounge inside 78th Street Studios that became a multi-sensory experience for art and music-loving residents and visitors of Northeast Ohio.
The physical space featured her original fine art and home decor products (one of which holds a design patent), a trademarked clothing line, and the accessories of many artists and makers from around the country from who she sourced handmade goods. She sourced old wood planks from Ohio bridge-building projects and used them to design a weathered facade with an "invisible door" without handles that pushed open into the room. The space itself was formerly known as the "Professional Think Tank," housing the best illustrators under contract with American Greetings. That very small group included Lynn Tooman who, as a top female artist, was years later told she developed the most successful card line in the history of the company and who's desk was located near where Susie's was also positioned. One of her colleagues was Tom Wilson who created Ziggy. Susie's innovative artwork, media relations abilities, and experimental events conceived from this room, like Watch It Wednesdays, and Sofar Sounds concerts attracted 13 years of TV, magazine and radio interviews for the artists, musicians, and owner of 78th Street Studios.
By 2014, Susie began a working partnership with Rustbelt Reclamation (now RUSTBELT), a company committed to bringing Cleveland's industrial chic furniture aesthetic to the national marketplace. Susie and her wooden wall features, tabletop accessories and blackened steel magnet boards became part of RUSTBELT's award-winning trade trade booths presented at NY NOW and High Point Market in North Carolina. Susie stood in the booth with other company representatives and helped sell a global audience of buyers on a look that defined the Rustbelt region. RUSTBELT in its current form, is now a woman-owned company.
Susie Frazier produced 13 years of commissioned artworks made from natural or reclaimed materials for companies like Sherwin Williams, University Hospitals, Hilton, Kimpton, Westin, Squire Patton Boggs, Forest City, BakerHostetler, Nordson, Moody Nolan, Cleveland, Clinic, Destination Cleveland, Greater Cleveland RTA, , lululemon, Orangetheory and more. Some of her past clients include:
Other private collectors, like Muse Headquarters, an award-winning branding and communications firm, hired Susie to create something unique for their office. Shown here is the wood, grass and encaustic wax piece Susie created for them titled, "Articulate."
Because of Susie's longstanding love of art, music, and cultural history, in 2015 she was invited by John Gorman, a legend in radio, to become part of Cleveland media history. Susie was asked to join the inaugural DJ team who helped launched oWOW, Cleveland's first internet radio station.
From 2016 to 2020, Susie entered a multi-year contract as the brand ambassador of Mont Surfaces, which lasted until the global COVID-19 pandemic struck. For four years, she served as the public face of Mont, working with Chief Marketing Officer, Carol Payto, elevating the brand’s presence as they promoted nature-infused design practices that were known to reduce stress. The partnership provided new content for Mont Magazine and many news outlets with which Mont interfaced across the Midwest. Susie later produced a video series for the company called, Mont in the Moment.
In 2017, Susie was invited by multifamily developer the NRP Group to style and stage the two bedroom model suite inside the newly constructed Edison at Gordon Square. She quickly turned the opportunity into a TV pilot about the process, providing cameos for her art and design peers. The 30-minute episode of Movers & Makers with Susie Frazier was co-produced and directed by Gordon Recht Productions, and it aired on NBC's WKYC-TV3 in Northeast Ohio. The co-producers both earned Emmy awards from The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Lower Great Lakes Chapter for their work on this project.
In 2018, after she wrote and designed her self-published book, Designing For Wellness®, Susie delivered public talks on wellness practices and biophilic design at five of Mont's Midwest showrooms, with travel support provided by Housetrends Magazine. She presented her images and ideas about her mind-calming design principles to the Pittsburgh, PA chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers and executed a satellite media tour to educate the public. Susie published many articles online for Thrive Global and Organic Spa Magazine, while appearing in studio in CBS San Diego, FOX Houston, and NBC studios in San Diego, Houston, and Cleveland.
in 2020, Designing For Wellness® books won five global book awards, but Susie focused her attention on her community, like so many others did at the time. Assembling a small team of well-respected specialists, Susie developed Maker Town®, the nation's first mobile app directory of makers and their products. The app highlighted upcoming monthly events and directed the public to safe outdoor markets on private property at a time when other public spaces were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To execute the program, Susie teamed up with Lisa Nemeth of Northcoast Promotions Inc. to hold popup markets for two years on a vacant corner operated by Saucy Brew Works in Ohio City, helping the public to link to the local goods they loved. This continued to give local artists and professional musicians like Patrick Duke Graney, opportunities to keep performing while other traditional music venues were temporarily closed.
In 2021, Susie completed her 200 HR Yoga Teacher Certification at Sukha Yoga Austin, learning the 8 Limbs of Yoga and why they matter in one's daily life. She continues to be a practitioner of heartfulness.
In 2022, Susie was interviewed by Dale Doughty, the leading advocate of the Maker Movement and founder of MAKE Magazine. Through the conversation, it become clear that Maker Town was the nation's first mobile app directory of artists and makers in America. It included anyone who sold their handmade items online or in-person. It wasn't a commerce tool like Etsy. It was a visual "Yellow Pages" (a reference to the old printed books mailed to all residents with a hard telephone line wired to their homes in the early days of telecommunications.) The first region featured on the Maker Town app was the 14 counties that make up Northeast Ohio. In 2023 the Maker Town website was hacked in a manner that included a breach to its bank account, and the whole operation was shut down.
From 2021 - 2023, Susie provided design consulting on various development projects. During that time, she published reels on Instagram and YouTube, that educated the public on various principles found in the WELL Building Standard. Right around the time she earned her WELL AP credential, a story in Forbes announced wellness design was a top trend of 2023. By 2024, the global wellness design market reached $584 Billion. Today, there are tens of thousands of firms, made up of brilliant designers around the world, now offering their own take on this fast growing industry.
In 2024, received the Next Frontier of Design award from the International WELL Building Institute for her pioneering efforts that helped introduce wellness design concepts to the public. She is the only American to have received this award, a special distinction she still holds today. During this period, Susie released a public service announcement featuring quotes she gathered from today's appropriate experts and authors, which she felt were the 2024 Essential Design Terms that all people should come to know, with a callout credit to the proper humans who helped coin and shape the world's understanding of these helpful terms.
From October 28, 2024 to September 1, 2025, Susie served as the anonymous creative director for long-time friend, rock music icon, and master illustrator, Derek Hess. Susie help update the look of his gallery, created a year's worth of social media content, developed new products, and provided editorial support on his upcoming and 7th book.
COMMUNITY SERVICE:
Susie Frazier has served on the boards of The City Club of Cleveland (2002 - 2005), the longest standing forum of free speech in the U.S. and ideastream (2003 - 2010), Northeast Ohio's public radio/public TV affiliate.
