Today we’d like to introduce you to Suzanne Pickett.
Hi Suzanne, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I spent a portion of my childhood in Eastside , I always carried a deep connection to the community that shaped me. But when I returned home to my family’s house, I was struck by a painful reality — despite the years that had passed, the neighborhood looked much the same as I had left it. The same disinvestment. The same unmet potential. I knew something had to change, and I knew I couldn’t wait for someone else to do it.
So I started where it mattered most with the people who lived there. I began working alongside residents, listening to their concerns and tapping into their vision for what the Eastside could become. Together, we formed the Eastside Community Coalition in 2013. What started as neighbors coming together around a shared purpose grew into something far greater. By 2016, the Coalition had become a certified Community Development Corporation (CDC), and in 2019 we achieved designation as a Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) giving us the tools and credibility to develop affordable housing and drive real, lasting change. But for me, transformation wasn’t just about bricks and mortar. I’ve always believed that a community’s spirit lives in its culture, and art has always been at the heart of who I am. So I picked up a brush and started painting murals — bringing color, beauty, and stories to walls that had long been overlooked. Each mural became a statement: that the Eastside deserves to be seen, celebrated, and invested in
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Has it been a smooth road? Honestly, no. But has it been worth every step? Absolutely without question.
Outside of raising my family and living my life as an artist, this work is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. It is a calling in the truest sense of the word. And like most callings, it has demanded everything from me.
Being a voice for a community is one of the most difficult and humbling responsibilities a person can take on. Not everyone understands how nonprofit organizations work how funding flows, why processes take time, or what it actually takes to move the needle in a neighborhood that has been overlooked for decades. That gap in understanding can breed frustration and mistrust, and learning to bridge it with patience, transparency, and compassion has been one of my greatest ongoing challenges.
The struggles have come from both inside and outside. Externally, the Eastside faces real and relentless development pressures — forces that threaten to displace the very residents we’re fighting to protect and strip away the cultural identity of a neighborhood before it ever gets the chance to fully flourish. Internally, the obstacle is sometimes change itself. Not everyone is ready for it. Some are afraid of what transformation might mean for them, their block, or the community they’ve always known. Learning to honor that fear while still moving forward has required a kind of resilience I didn’t fully know I had until I was tested.
But through all of it — the setbacks, the resistance, the slow grind of systemic change — I have never lost sight of why I started. And I have never stopped believing in the people of the Eastside.
So I kept showing up. I kept organizing. And I kept painting — putting color and life onto walls that had long been ignored, because this community’s story deserves to be told boldly and beautifully.
This is more than a job. It is a calling. And the work is far from over.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work as an artist lives at the intersection of humanity, nature, and community. I am a multidisciplinary artist based in Jacksonville, Florida, and across all of the mediums I work in mixed media painting, murals, and beyond there is one consistent thread: connection. I explore the delicate and often unseen relationships between the natural world and the inner human experience, creating work that invites people to look beneath the surface and engage with what truly binds us together.
What I am perhaps best known for, and most proud of, is my mural work on the Eastside. Using public art as a tool for community transformation, I have painted murals that tell the stories of a neighborhood and its people bringing beauty, dignity, and identity to spaces that had long been neglected. For me, a wall is never just a wall. It is an opportunity to say to a community: you matter, your story matters, and this place is worth celebrating.
What sets me apart is the fact that I don’t just parachute into a community to create art and leave. I live this work. I am both the artist and the community developer someone who has spent over a decade organizing residents, building institutions, and fighting for equitable development on the Eastside. My art is not separate from that mission. It is an extension of it. Every mural, every brushstroke, is rooted in a deep understanding of the people and the place.
Beyond the murals, my studio work challenges perception encouraging viewers to look past surface appearances and sit with the deeper, often invisible connections that shape our lives and our world. I create pieces that cultivate empathy, spark reflection, and foster a sense of unity between people and the natural elements that surround them.
If there is one thing I want people to take away from my art, it is this: we are more connected than we realize to each other, to nature, and to the communities we call home.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success, to me, is not measured by accolades or milestones. It is something far more personal and far more profound.
I define success as faith in myself , in all of my endeavors and the quiet, unshakeable confidence that I am using my gifts and talents to fulfill my purpose. And at the core of that purpose is this: helping others realize theirs.
I live by a simple but powerful creed: Lift as I climb. Give as I grow. Every step forward I take is an opportunity to reach back. Every door that opens for me is a chance to hold it open for someone else. That is the standard I hold myself to not just as a community developer or an artist, but as a human being.
When I look at a young person on the Eastside who begins to see their neighborhood differently who starts to believe that where they come from is worth something, that they were born with value within them that is success. When a resident who once doubted whether change was possible becomes an advocate for it, that is success. When a mural on a forgotten wall stops someone in their tracks and makes them feel seen, that is success.
True success, for me, is living in alignment with purpose. It is waking up each day committed to the belief that my gifts are not mine alone they are meant to be poured into the people and the community around me. That is the measure I use. That is the legacy I am building.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hecdcjax.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historiceastsidecdc_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/historiceastside/
