John Fitzgerald

Growing up in New York, John Fitzgerald made his first painting in response to a competition sponsored by Q-Tip when he was in eighth grade. Using Q-Tips instead of paintbrushes, he won the second place award and was inspired to continue his new endeavor.

In the following years, Fitzgerald painted whenever possible, exploring a wide range of media. He frequented New York City's East Village, surrounding himself with artists and studying the works of abstract painters such as Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning and Wassily Kandinsky. The energetic and eclectic life in and around The Big Apple served as inspiration for Fitzgerald's own evolving art, a mixed-media combination of living colors and asymmetrical lines.

Throughout the '80s and early'90s, while supporting himself as a steamfitter, Fitzgerald continued to paint and had gallery showings in New York City, Dallas and Detroit.
Working in acrylic and mixed media, Fitzgerald says his abstract creations now come more freely than ever. "As soon as I make that first stroke, I get tunnel vision and nothing distracts me," he says. "This work comes from within, from a vast and wild place, so powerful that I can't contain it. There's no effort anymore. I used to try too hard to make a painting…now I just surrender myself and let it take me where it will."