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Schneider Pierre

Mr. Gallagher

English 12

05/April/2010

Tony Fitzpatrick life in Chicago

Tony Fitzpatrick his born and based Chicago artist (born 1958), he is referred to as

“larger than life” he is a former prizefighter, poet, movie actor and a self taught artist (Allan

par.1). Tony has many of his work in the collections of, the art institute of Chicago, the museum

of contemporary art in Chicago, the museum of modern art in New York and the museum of

American art in Washington D.C. from 1990 to 1994 he operated the world tattoo gallery in

Chicago and he co founded the big cat press in 1992 (Borum par.1) His art works are influenced

by Haitian artistic sources and reveal the darker aspect of American culture. he made the black

swan, he made a few pieces all with different kinds of “aces of spade” motifs of the memories of

his farther (Fitzpatrick par.2) whose nick named was Ace, he stopped after making six of them,

his farther loved games of chance such as blackjack, poker and the lotto, Tony once tried to

explain the math to his dad, because the state of Illinois basically made the number racked legal

called it lotto in 1973. He said his dad had spent a couple of hundred grand on lotto tickets

between 1973 and 1997, when he tried to explain the long term calculus of it, he say his dad

would tell him to mind his own business (Fitzpatrick par.2).

Fitzpatrick and his dad had a complicated relationship “I put many gray hairs on his

head”; he got in lot of trouble as a kid and the only one of his sibling to do so. He rejected the

catholic faith his dad and his mom held to, he hated school and authority, ands he thought that

his teacher were mostly stupid (T.F.wordpress.com), he just wanted to draw pictures and to be

left alone in school, him and his dad often battled at the dinner table, Tony said he would tell him
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around his age he was off fighting a war, his farther fought in WWW II in Okinawa (Fitzpatrick).

He wrote at the end of his farther life, he was hospice, he would visit him every day and try to

have conversations, Tony wrote he would often tell him that there was Japanese soldier in the

hallway, Tony would think his farther was mistaking one of the doctors for the soldier, but he

said no he kept insisting there was a Japanese soldier lurking in the hallway, Tony would ask

why he thought there is soldier in the hall his dad would answer “to forgive me” (Fitzpatrick).

He begin seriously drawing with pastel on slate board in a store front in the town of

villa park in Illinois, he work by day and bartended at the bar across the street, at night, in the

early 1980 (CCGN par.2).during that time, he develop separate friendships with Chicago radio

personality and bluesman Buzz Kilman and the film director Jonathan Demme. Both Kilman and

Demme are long time friends, and the three became really close. As a result Tony has starred in a

few of Demme films and other films as well. During the late 1980, he begin getting gallery

shows in Chicago (Hirsch par.3) and New York City he started it establishing connections that

would lead him to become a successful working artist who has sold painting to several film

directors also among others. Tony is also an accomplished poet and published several book of his

art and poetry (Fitzpatrick par.2), including the hard angel and the neighborhood. Tony is in to

sport so sports often figures in to his art and his poetry, especially his favorite baseball team

(artscope.com), the Chicago white sox, but Fitzpatrick also gain inspiration from the city of

Chicago itself, and the underbelly of society. Tony in his past has been a boxer, a bouncer at a

club, and also a bartender. In November 2009, the New city named Tony Fitzpatrick the “Best

iconic Chicago personality now that stud is gone” (Wikipedia).

Fitzpatrick artistic career focused on printmaking, but recently changed his focus to

producing mixed media “drawings/collages”. His drawing/collages often are cartoon like

drawing in images such as baseball cards. most of his work have been on Chicago and the

memories of his farther (seaman par.3), among his work are the drawing which make up for the

brief chapbook “bum town” and a continuing series of drawing/collages with poetry, “the

wonder, tales of the city” (Alan par.3). He had his own spot on a Chicago radio station for eight
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years and wrote books of poems with artworks published. Fitzpatrick has done cover art for

numerous albums for band groups, such as the Neville brothers “yellow moon” (album

nominated for diamond award best album cover) (Alan par.3), Lou reed’s ‘big cat”, both album

by the Captain Howdy, and all of Steve earls solo albums since 1996 “I Feel right”, as well as the

cover for Earle book of his short stories “dog houses rose”. He is also notable for his work as an

actor and playwright ;( Langer par.3) he had roles in the movies Philadelphia, primal fear,

married to the mob, and many others. Tony Fitzpatrick painting is not as big as other painting his

are just only 10 inch (Langer par3). They are Like cards, with a big picture in the middle and

surround it by little different pictures with a meaning to, most of his work are based on people he

found interesting for example on his main subject his the Crazy horse, he made 9 paintings has a

memories for crazy horse, who was respected leader of the Oglala Lakota, he fought against the

U.S federal government to preserve the land and traditions of the Lakota way of life. And also he

had subjects about Japan, he paints it 10 collages calling it the Tokyo series (Fitzpatrick), and he

made paintings about Chicago, New Orleans. He didn’t only made paintings on states or country

he made some based on people has well, he have a painting call the hell songbird or doc holiday,

a was on John Henry ‘Doc’ Holiday who was one of the west more storied gunfighters

(T.F Wordpress.com). Tony explained as he was an “ill-tempered man who was perpetually

drinking and swigging laudanum for his tuberculosis. He made the songbird for Nelson Algren.

He made more than a few tributes to the great Chicago writer.

Tony Fitzpatrick painting “The Horse Star (For Crazy Horse). In this painting the

first subject I took notice of was the Star in the middle of the painting with many colors on it, the

star has colors like red, black, green, yellow and white, the star seem to be inside of another

shape of star, in the middle of the star there is a circle that is black and white and the many colors

inside it and the star shape outside of the star is black and white just like the circle in the middle.

In the sides of the star there are lines going up some are long and some are short they are color

black and red the long ones are black and the short ones are red and also the lines appear to be in

the bottom of the star as well but only side as a lot . Around the star on top there seem to be a
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necklace with big red balls and small balls going around the star and is also appear in the bottom

of the painting and on the sides of it , and in the corner on top there is a yellow ball, with white,

red and black colors, a look like a explosive and also there is black line coming out of it with red

circles at the end of the lines there is one in the bottom. In the painting there multiple dices

showing the number 1,2 and 5 there are a number of 5 dices two is big and the other three are

small. And there seem to be to large cross one in up right of the painting and the other one is in

the left side both are brown red and black but the one on top outside shape is red and inside is

brown in the cross inside of it is black the other one is opposite is brown red and the cross inside

is black just the other one, in each corners of the paintings there are pictures of what it a seem to

be advertisements the ones on top are pictures of a Hotel in fox worth Texas and the other is a

Nectar advertisement and the two on the bottom are a picture of a all state tires and a picture of

bulldozer and also on the side tony wrote “ he is the blinding snow under” in overall the

paintings is mostly black, and yellow with white background and the signature in most of his No

.9 paint it grey.

This painting The Horse Star is one of the paintings in Tony Fitzpatrick series the

Crazy Horse. The series and this painting is about the Native American Crazy Horse who was a

superior rider “who could do many other things while riding a horse. He was as expert at

breaking and training horses as well as capturing wild horses” (T.F Wordpress.com). In this

painting Fitzpatrick explain crazy Horse as young man who stole another man wife, “Black

Buffalo Woman”, who it is said he was in love with till the day Crazy Horse died. “Upon being

confronted and captured by tribal elders, he was forced to return her as well as two horses to the

aggrieved brave. This was considered an extremely harsh penalty” (Fitzpatrick). Tony also

wrote in his website about the that “All Black Buffalo Woman would have had to do in order to

divorce the brave was to move his stuff out in front of their tent and this would have been the

only statement necessary regarding the finality of their marriage. Crazy Horse was heartbroken

by this and became even more reckless in leading war parties and raids. His first wife, Yellow

Dress, grieved endlessly over his taking up with another woman and died at a young age.
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“Fitzpatrick wrote when crazy horse was at a young age he lost the woman he loved he lost his

brother and his farther and that him losing the people he love, probably affected the view he had

of the world. Son his life was “perilous, short, bitter, and fragile”, and that is why Tony

Fitzpatrick called this piece, “The Horse Star.”

Another painting is the Winter Monument (for crazy Horse). The painting has a big

star in the middle of it that green, light blue, black and white the outside shape of it is all white,

in the middle of the star there is 5 circle the big is white the others are green and white and black

and a seem to have spikes coming out of it in the middle, all around the painting there is 12 balls

most of them are color green and the rest are light blue and brown, the green balls seem to look

like a explosive inside the ball with spikes coming out of it that is color black 3 of the lines at the

end of them have a star at the end, and the 2 other green balls are the same but have black dots

inside of it in the white part. The brown they seem to look like some type of flower ball and

some of them the color seem to be dark and the others are light brown, there is one ball that is

under the middle of the star that is light blue with lines going across of it with 2 white stars and

dots on the lines. And on the top right there is a bunch of light brown stars and one brown

yellowish that seem to be forming a circle. On top by the star there is a dark blue cross that

writing on it inside a say hotel, there are multiple cross most of it have words in it. There are two

cross that is grey and black one is on top in the left side and the other one is on the bottom on the

right side of the painting and also there is a all green cross on the left side up of the painting. In

the bottom of the painting there is a brown triangle with black lines going across of it with

something that look like some type of flowers picture just like balls on it, and on the side of it

there is two hands on the right the hand is facing up and the other side the hand is facing down

both hands are open. And all around the painting there are several little stars that are color blue

in the inside and black in the outside and some of the others are just all black. In the four corners

of the paintings there are four pictures one of them is about “Texaco Gas and Oil” and on one of

the corner the other one is a picture of a paper that say “Chili house” and the two corners on the

bottom, one of them say “Pyroil Save motors cut expense” and in the other corner is a picture of
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what a seem to look like a cave. And on the right side of the painting Fitzpatrick wrote on the

top “He is 3 Hail stone” and on the middle he wrote “He is whistling Miles of furious black ice”

and the bottom one say “and a radiant nickel star” most of the sentence writing in the painting

probably mean something about crazy horse. The name of the painting go with it because the

painting don’t seem to be bright and a don’t seem to be dark so a seem to look just like winter.

This painting is important because Tony Fitzpatrick want it to show that Crazy Horse

loved sleeping out under the stars as “did the poet Li-Po in China, 1200 years earlier. Both men

had a communion with nature that is best described as spiritual. The poet, Li-Po, would be

reduced to tears at the sight of the constellations. Crazy Horse wore three hailstones painted on

his forehead because he believed they were of the stars. They guide us and move us to poetry and

song and paint and dance”(T.F wordpress.com). Fitzpatrick wrote on his website about years

ago he did an artist in Residence, Montana “It was early winter/late-autumn and the colors were

muted, russety reds, ochres, firey yellows, as well as plum-colored leaves that were as furiously

sad as a Guy Clark song. It woke me to the idea of making work rooted in nature”(Fitzpatrick).

This was kind of a new idea to Fitzpatrick because he never did anything like that since he been

drawing painting/collages. “I’d always drawn birds, but never the land itself”. Tony said that

some of his favorite art were Charles Burchfield’s watercolors, Arthur Dove’s bloody suns, John

Marin’s scratchy and earthy mountain-scapes and the sublimely lovely Marsden

Hartley paintings. “But until then I’d never seen myself as being able to cobble together works

about nature”(Tony Fitzpatrick). This paintings is also was made because Fitzpatrick saw a

meteor shower, “While I was staying there, the woman at the hotel desk informed me that at four

the next morning there would be a meteor shower, and if I’d like to see it, she’d give me a wake-

up call and I could walk out next to the river and witness one of nature’s most amazing light-

shows. True to her word, she woke me up at 3:30 and I made some coffee”(T.F wordpress.com)

Then he wrote that he walked to the river with five or six other people and watch it he said a was

astonished, “The stars and comets were dancing a ferocious dervish in the black sky. I thought

it’d be one or two shooting stars; this was the sky moving like amphetamine-laced neon light.
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I’d never seen anything like it. I had the thought that I knew what people meant when they said

the stars spoke to them. These thoughts loomed large in my head when I thought about the work

I’d been making about Crazy Horse and the monument still being carved out

of Thunder Mountain to “honor” him.

I thought that the greatest, and most resonant monument one could build for him is already there;

the stars, the river . . . the mountain itself” (T.F wordpress.com).

Tony Fitzpatrick painting “the song bird”. In this painting the first object I took notice of

was the bird facing down with many colors on it, the bird has colors like red, black, green,

yellow and others. The bird seem to have to eyes in it one in the head and the other one is in the

tail, which is the same color has the other, and also you could see the feathers colors are different

, they have the same color but are painting opposite to each other and the paints are random, the

bird seem to going down in the mouth is open and its facing the word Chicago Ave with 2

building on top of the word and one of them is paint it yellow around the it, this probably mean

that the bird is trying to struck down the building because is something bad about the building so

it’s trying to get rid of it, Chicago Ave is paint it orange and black, and his probably showing

that Chicago Ave his a important place in Chicago, it its through to the west town and near north

side areas. Near the bird mouth you could see a train paint it red that his coming out next to

dartboard with color of kaki, and green with a Indian logo middle of it and a bone coming out of

it on the top of the train and there a other coming out in the bottom, on the other side of the bird

mouth there’s another dartboard is the same color but with a ace logo in the middle of it, this one

have three bones coming out the number 9,10,and 11 probably meaning something, there a on

the side of it , is a pictures of woman back with someone else head on it, is probably some

famous because the face is red and the back of the body is kaki, and the lady is actually standing

on the word Chicago Ave probably telling that she is known in Chicago Ave. By the neck of the

bird you could see a yellow car, I can see what it is but I could see a mytle word on it on the side

of that there poker card with letter k in it wrote big and is light blue, and by that you could see a

woman with a red dress on dancing with her hands up and a hand by her waist, you only could
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the hand of the man only with a music symbol right next to her. At the corner of the painting

there a building a seem to be a apartment which is color navy blue, on top of the lady there

something there look like suit assuming is suit because the artist seen to paint a bowtie there that

his yellow and red and on top the bowtie there three skulls, 2 on the bottom and one on top of

them, all three of them is on top of the bowtie making it look like is probably a suit , and on top

of the skull head there three dices, each showing a 1,2 and 6 well only two is showing all three.

The body of the seem to be flat it is color red, green and black and the tail which have and a seen

to have something kind covering it if you look at the tail of the closely, next to the tail there a

dartboard brown red and black with the logo of a symbol they use in poker cards and also the

dartboard doesn’t have any number on it probably meaning is a chip they use when you playing

poker , also there seen to be two bones sticking out of it, the other side of the tail have the same

thing but a different symbol in the middle and the color surrounding the symbol is different on is

red and the other is black .

Tony Fitzpatrick made this painting to tribute the Chicago writer Nelson Algren who use

to live four blocks down from him, Nelson Algren was a American novelist and a short story

writer he wrote on his website that Algren, “of course, is the steely realist who will not let us

bullshit ourselves about who we are. He is also the soft heart who is full of the gambler’s

optimism about who we could be. He was a master of the gray; the good in the bad and the bad

in the good” (T.F wordpress.com) and also that Algren often turns his sad and tragic stories

with funny humor. “He is also aware of Chicago’s propensity for eating its own. He often

remarked that Chicago could not “love you back” and went to his grave believing this”(Tony

Fitzpatrick.com). He wrote when he walked down on Chicago Avenue he realize that “they’ve

not been able to gentrify Algren out of this part of town” and His shadow is still here and still

large. “This one painting is for him” (Fitzpatrick).

The second paining is “the black swan” in this paint the first thing that caught my

attention is the big Ace symbol, in it a have mallard duck that seen to be on top of the ocean. The

mallard duck color I all black with mix orange feather, with the feathers up like is about to fly
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because is windy because you could see waves in the back of the duck you could see the sunset

going up, in the big ace picture there seem to be eyes on top of the duck head and that a look like

is someone that’s old or someone that’s very tired, that seem to be case cause of the sunset in the

Ace behind the duck. Outside the Ace picture on top on both sides there some types of

dartboards, one is light brown with flower looking things in there with a red dot in the middles

and the other is kind of a dark brown with the same looking thing but more of it and the red

dot in the middle is way darker than the other one, and there seem to be leafs branches

surrounding them, on the sides of the middle of the ace there seen to be two dartboards on both

sides with Asian writing on it with the color red. And on the bottom there to dartboards one with

flowers the painters drew with pencil like the others on then the other is just a regular dartboard,

on one of it you could see a big No 9 all red, in the back of the 9 there something that seem

like happy face sun. And all around the ace in the painting it is surround it by yellow and green

spikes, and at the corners there four different things on is picture of a building with on the side a

say hotel Atlantic Chicago, the other one is a picture of card symbols which say Chicago Clarks

and on the bottom corner of them say Hi-Ho Club with the address and the last one say free

parking’s tickets, and on the bottom the painter wrote ace surrounded by music sign also in the

painting there a couple of re diamond symbol one is on top of the ace picture, and other than that

there are branches leaf all in painting.

This painting the black swan he made cause his farther love game of chances such as

blackjack, poker and the lotto, his farther “ often bought 15-20 “Quick Picks” a day

(TonyFitzpatrick.com). He was a child of the Depression, the Irish Sweepstakes, and “Policy,” a

game more known by its other name, “Numbers.” He had a gambler’s optimism to the point of

being delusional about the Lotto. I once tried to explain the math to him, since the State of

Illinois basically made the numbers racket legal and called it Lotto in 1973. I surmised that my

Dad had spent, conservatively, a couple of hundred grand on Lotto Tickets between 1973 and

1997. He wouldn’t hear of it being a sucker-bet, noting that in the mid 80s he’d once won five
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grand. When I tried to explain the long-term calculus of this, he told me to mind my own

business” (T.F wordpress.com).