Remembering Tony Fitzpatrick

Tony Fitzpatrick died Sat., Oct. 11, at the age of 66. He was a beloved part of the fabric of Chicago—joining Nelson Algren, Studs Terkel, and Mike Royko as Chicago’s great story-tellers, singing the tales of the city through his art, writing, and poetry, as well as in cinema and on the theater stage. 

Tony’s multimedia creations, part of the “outsider art” movement, enjoyed universal critical acclaim. In addition to exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Tony’s work was enjoyed by millions in the Chicago subway system. And ABA members delighted in seeing Tony’s art in the association’s magazines and other offerings.

The cover of Birding magazine, Feb. 2020.

Tony’s diverse art took many forms, and birds were a constant theme. Tony said, “Birds are the only real evidence of divinity in my life.” In his book, The Secret Birds (Curbside Splendor Publishing, 2016), Tony writes:

Every morning my grandmother Mamie would toast a couple pieces of bread (sometimes she’d put jelly on them) and she’d throw them off the back stoop to the birds and then she’d watch them through the window. The first time I saw her do this I was surprised. In our house it was a cardinal sin to waste food. We were by no means poor, but both of my parents were children of The Depression and those lessons stayed with them their whole lives. I asked my grandmother why she was giving bread to the birds and she quietly told me, “For a piece of bread you can hear God sing.” Birds were music for poor people.

It was then that I first started drawing birds and reading about them, and I haven’t stopped since.

I first met Tony at one of his gallery openings in Chicago 15 years ago. He knew me from social media, and when I walked in he recognized me, and breaking free of his entourage—it was always “the Tony show” at one of his openings—he pointed at me and said, “You’re the bird guy.” 

“Yes I am,” I replied. 

He said, “We gotta talk, but not right now.”

Later that week we talked via phone, and we’ve been friends ever since.

Tony had circles within circles of friends. Actors, musicians, writers, artists, neighborhood characters, chefs, club owners, and the birding community. He had time for all of them, while kicking out a truly impressive amount of new art every month.

When he created art with birds, he liked to “jazz ’em up a bit,” as he put it. When the ABA asked Tony Fitzpatrick to be our 2020 Bird of the Year artist, it was quite a leap from the much more traditional artists of the previous nine years. The species chosen was the Cedar Waxwing, and we had something very specific in mind: two waxwings passing a berry between them (something they often do).

The piece Tony created was beyond our wildest dreams. When the magazine came out, and I took a few copies to his studio, he told me that being on the cover of Birding was one of the most prestigious achievements of his life. A tad overstated, maybe. But he meant it. Ornithologist and bird ID expert Peter Pyle, writing in that issue of the magazine, praised Tony for the remarkable accuracy of the art, down to the precise details of the age and sex of the birds.

Tony was tireless in promoting the ABA, signing hundreds of posters, getting “A Communion of Waxwings” installed at a particularly busy Chicago subway station, talking about it during radio interviews, and more.

The next spring, my friend Larry “Skillethead” Krutulis and I took Tony birding for a weekend in far northwestern Illinois, along the Mississippi River. We had a very productive and fun couple days of birding, and Tony saw a whole bunch of new species. This inspired a flurry of new art, including a Bobolink, Western Meadowlark, Indigo Bunting, Common Nighthawks, and Blue Grosbeak.

Tony Fitzpatrick watches a singing Blue Grosbeak at Lost Mount NWR in Illinois. Photo by Greg Neise.

As Tony was watching the Blue Grosbeak sing at the top of a tall shrub through my scope, he was talking to himself about the color. Already making plans, figuring out how he was going to get this bird on paper. We got home late Sunday night, exhausted. But Monday afternoon, Tony texted me a picture of “an embryonic new thing.” That Blue Grosbeak couldn’t wait.

The next few years saw Tony churning out a massive amount of art featuring birds. We talked every week—almost every day—as he used me as a sounding board with his bird ideas. Of course I was delighted to have even a tiny part in the artistic process.

Tony had some fun with beer can labels, via our friends at Kinslahger Brewing in Oak Park, a collar-suburb of Chicago. In early 2024, after the announcement of the Golden-winged Warbler as the ABA Bird of the Year, I had an idea. Would Tony do a piece of art with a Golden-winged Warbler in it for a commemorative beer can label? While I was at it, I thought, if I’m gonna make an ask, make it big or go home. I asked if he would donate the art to the ABA, to be auctioned as a fundraiser.

Of course he would. And that’s how Gold Wing Pilsner—the most sought-after beer can in Chicago during the summer of 2024—came to be. But of course, Tony wasn’t done. Something we learned at one of his gallery openings is that people really wanted him to sign their beer cans with his art on it.

Tony did three different signing events for the ABA around Chicago, selling out the brew in record time. The guy could move and shake. Between the release party and posters in 2020, and the beer can labels four years later, Tony was instrumental in raising thousands of dollars for the ABA. The original Gold Wing art is currently being bid on at ABA Auctions.