Suzane Maris Santos

Teaches at The Art Center Highland Park

Suzanne has a BA in Business Administration from Westminster College (PA) and an MBA from DePaul University. As an undergraduate, she spent a semester in Toulouse France, and later received a Rotary International Fellowship to pursue studies in modern Greek language at the Aristotelian University in Thessaloniki, Greece. Suzanne studied art at University of Illinois at Chicago and became involved with metalsmithing in 1997 at The Art Center in Highland Park, where she now serves as a faculty member.The idea of connectedness and belonging are inspiration to the artist. She founded her business, EKOS Designs, in 1997, having derived the name from the Greek word oikos. Loosely translated to house or home, oikos shares its root with a number of Greek words including those for intimacy, family, inhabitant, ecology, world, and universe. To the artist, the connotation is that all earthly things are related. She takes this concept further, utilizing a playful variety of materials, from gold to found objects, that speak to both preciousness and irony.Suzanne currently lives in Riverwoods, IL, with her husband and three children. Her designs are available at the National Hellenic Museum gift shop in Chicago, and directly through
the artist.