I Saw the Number 9 in Gold

August 2, 2016 6:40 AM

Tony Fitzpatrick's blog, No. 9: An Artist's Journey, is a gorgeous collection of drawing/collages from a former tattoo artist and boxer turned maker. His self-taught style will be familiar to fans of Steve Earle's albums; the Chicago-based artist's works also hang in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami.

From Fitzpatrick's blog:

I went to a high school with no windows. At least in grade school, I could look outside at the birds. This became my great escape, and when I drew them, it became even better.

Often the drawings wound up situated in the middle of the crazed and vulgar doodles that I made. I didn’t realize it was my subconscious telling me to broom the rest of this shit and just go somewhere and draw. Eventually I got it. Drawing birds and naked girls became my passport to what the nuns used to call, “Tony World.” I liked it there. ...

I didn’t know it then, but those drawings were a foundation. . .the rock on which I built my work.

Noteable: Pink Death. The Atomic Oriole. The Map of Mercy. The Secret Birds.

Previously, from 2003, and more recently, elsewhere, also from our own madamjujujive. Title inspiration.

posted by MonkeyToes (4 comments total)

Oh, cool! He's from my town, according to Wikipedia. His work is gorgeous.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 7:29 AM on August 2, 2016

It's worth pointing out that he currently has an exhibition at the Depaul Art Museum in Chicago, through August 21, and it's free! We just saw it last weekend; if you haven't had a chance to see his work in person, it's well worth the trip--his collage work, in particular, is hard to adequately capture in print.

He's also a columnist for Newcity, one of our local indie papers.

Thanks for the post!
posted by carrienation at 10:44 AM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's worth pointing out that he currently has an exhibition at the Depaul Art Museum in Chicago

Peregrine of Chicago is amazing. Glad you had the chance to go!
posted by MonkeyToes at 12:59 PM on August 2, 2016

Thanks for the shout out, MonkeyToes. I recently rediscovered his blog and his more recent work and am loving it. Thanks for all the additional info on Fitzpatrick.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:22 AM on August 3, 2016