By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer

Most 13-year-olds are just starting to develop their sense of self, but Waco artist Will Suarez was experimenting with the inner workings of his creativity and learning how to graffiti. Now, years later, he is a multi-talented artist working with notable companies such as Sendero Provisions Co. and Creative Waco.

Growing up in Waco, Suarez’s connection to the city’s art scene began in middle school, when classmates would pay him to paint or draw their names.

“I guess ever since then, the business side of it kind of clicked where I was like, ‘I can kind of make a living doing this if I try hard enough or just pursue it more,'” Suarez said. “As I got older, I continued to do freelance work, and I learned Photoshop on my own before I went to school.”

While Suarez majored in graphic design at South Texas College, he said his inspiration for creating has always stemmed from music. He has a strong love for packaging design and album artwork, which led to freelance work for independent artists.

Suarez has done extensive freelance work with Sony Music and Warner Music Group and has been nominated for a Grammy in the packaging design category.

In addition to graphic design, Suarez has mentored within Creative Waco’s “Artprenticeship” program, collaborating with young artists to create multiple murals around Waco.

Stefanie Wheat-Johnson, Artprenticeship program director for Creative Waco, said that Suarez has been heavily involved in the program ever since its development and has been enthusiastic about integrating art into the community.

“He was one of our first mentors in the program,” Wheat-Johnson said. “The process that we have with our apprenticeship is really centered on community engagement and allowing our chance to have sort of a real-life, hands-on experience creating large-scale murals, and also getting that chance to see artists in their community who work in some sort of professional creative sphere.”

Suarez helped create murals at Cameron Park Zoo, Waco Family Medicine—Martin Luther King, Jr. and one on University Parks Drive near Bicycle World. While he spearheaded these murals, he worked alongside high school students, showcasing the creation process to them.

Aside from public art, Suarez has worked directly with Sendero Provisions Co., starting as an art director and later becoming creative director.

Suarez said he has been grateful to pursue multiple areas of his artistic career. However, he notes that the early days of working for Sendero were highly deterministic for his career.

“My very first day with Sandero was the day that kind of changed everything,” Suarez said. “We did a collaboration with Ariat, and it was due the next morning…the CEO, was like, ‘You want to stay up all night with me and finish?’ and I was like, ‘Sure.’ And we stayed up literally until 6 a.m., and at 8 a.m. we had a presentation for Ariat to complete, which got rolled out last year.”

While Suarez has had many successful artistic ventures, he said assisting the CEO of Sendero with the Ariat project “opened up a lot of doors for success and their guidance.”

“I get friends from literally everywhere who are like, ‘Oh, I saw this Sendero hat in Colorado or in LA’ or wherever,” Suarez said. “Or my kids, it’s pretty funny, we go to the store, we go to Dallas, we’ll go to the mall, and they’ll see it at, you know, the storefront at Zoomies, or at The Buckle. And they’re like, ‘My dad made that.'”

Considering Suarez’s lengthy resume, he said that one of his main philosophies in life is to treat every project — no matter the size or importance — with the same amount of care.

“I’ve always been taught to treat people with kindness,” Suarez said. “I mean, that’s literally what’s gotten me this far, whether it was a CEO of a big corporation or the janitor like anyone and everyone that I came in contact with, I’ve always used that same philosophy of treat them with kindness, give my best work, regardless of if it’s some small little restaurant that wanted me to do something for them or some big chain that wanted when me to do stuff with them.”