I Remember Ted…

Ted Suggs

Ted Suggs, one of San Diego’s leading artists died on January 13, 2005 from pancreatic cancer, he was 64. Ted also was in the first graduating class of Crawford High in 1959. He served our community as a Director on the Board of the Artists Guild of the San Diego Museum of Art for many years, he truly was a many facetted man… sculpture, welder, photographer, craftsman, performance artist, cartoonist and illustrator. Ted was a loyal and steadfast friend… who was also a passionate man. He could be seen in his Spanish Village studio months before his death working on his own reliquary which would entomb his cremated remains.

A visit to his studio found one… in a world all of Ted’s making. Ted’s World was a strangely unique and bubbling environment of curiosities. And in this universe was the wizard, the creator, the magic man. His gift for gab and intelligence could and did captivate you, as he probed your response to his questions. If he ever caught you in a conversation… you knew that you would not get away… he would hold you for at least an hour. Yep… you were stuck! And out would flow a torrent of thoughts wrapped in a maze of both abstract and practical concepts… and on any topic under the sun.

The World According Ted (his studio), was full of wall-to-wall photos, all sorts of things hanging for every conceivable place, sculpture through the inside and of course you entered through the standing rock garden, of balanced stones. In his altered state…he became Retired Colonel Pierre Thunderbrit ches of the French Foreign Legion aka Ted Suggs. A gathering of his friends came together on January 23rd, 2005 in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village in celebration of his life and to give him a proper send off. For more on Ted, you can find his Obituary in the San Diego Union-Tribune of Saturday, January 22nd, 2005. Ya… I Remember Ted!!!

Ted Suggs as Pieree	Ted Suggs as the Wizard of Creation

Ted Suggs, 64; artist, comic who enjoyed masquerading
Abstract from the San Diego Union-Tribune, Obituaries, January 22, 2005

By trade, Ted Suggs was an illustrator and metal sculptor. However, he was equally known for another art form of sorts: creating bizarre names and identities for himself, with apparel and attitude to match. One day he could be Ted the Dragon, which he dubbed himself at his Spanish Village studio in Balboa Park. Another day he could be Theodore Thunderbritches, resplendent in fighter pilot gear. If the mood struck him, he would affix his artificial Cyrano de Bergerac nose, don some French military gear and morph into Col. Pierre Thunderbritches. And on Halloween, you could call him "Dr. Wong," a persona in which he surgically carved pumpkins. Always, it seemed, he was a comic. "(He was) just one of those people in a funny mood," said Danny Baucum, his friend since the seventh grade.

Mr. Suggs, who was born Edward L. Suggs in Long Beach, died January 12 at Grossmont Hospital. He was 64. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed in July, said his niece, Jennifer Suggs. In 1991, after a neck injury forced him to abandon a career as a journeyman plumber, Mr. Suggs turned to art full time. He leased Studio 9 at Spanish Village, where he displayed his whimsical illustrations and sculptures and befriended and entertained passers-by young and old. His award-winning sculptures and photographs have been displayed at the Del Mar Fair and the San Diego Museum of Art, his niece said.

Befitting his off-center persona, Mr. Suggs represented San Diego artists at the annual Comic-Con International Convention in San Diego. He was a fixture for years at the annual Kinetic Sculpture Race in Ferndale and at Hot August Nights, a show for classic-car aficionados in Reno. At Ferndale, he created posters with intricate illustrations and assumed his Pierre identity. He was Pierre in Reno as well, greeting thousands of onlookers in an annual parade down Virginia Street in Baucum's vintage Willys Jeepster.
"He had all kinds of ridiculous medals, bells and whistles, and a round military hat," Baucum said. "The crowd would see him dressed in that Pierre garb and just go wild."

Mr. Suggs grew up in Rolando and attended Helix and Hoover high schools before graduating in 1959 in Crawford High's first senior class. He began drawing cartoons for classmates in the fourth grade, creating a strip called "Werewolf Willie in Vampire Valley." He went on to study technical illustration at San Diego City College and picked up pointers on metal sculpture in a gas-welding class at Mesa College. He earned degrees in graphic design and computer graphic design at Platt College in San Diego.
In the 1970s, as a member of the Spanish Village Art Association, Mr. Suggs sold every piece he displayed in an art-mart sale at Sixth and Laurel. Bouyed by his success, he became a founding member of a group of artists at "That Gallery" in Old Town, where he sold to an international clientele for five years.