Open for Business

My long awaited prints are now available on-line at my etsy shop: (jeanfitz.etsy.com.) I’m so excited that I can finally share my original paintings in a form that is nearly like the real thing…but at an affordable price. A $500 painting can be experienced for $40 now! They make you want to touch them and feel the textured paint strokes.  I know I sound like a brochure, but, seriously, I am currently amazed at technology. The level of detail is unbelievable. I think these prints give me the same awe and wonder that a recording of good music can do. You see the concert live and in person, but the magic happens in the CD you take home. Sometimes that little gap between the original and the imitation adds some intangible value to something. You know it’s not really there but it makes you activate your imagination even more. May I be so bold as to say that, perhaps, these prints are that visual equivalent?   I am able to make these digital prints at home now, using a fancy inkjet printer and sell them through another technological wonder, the Internet!

I could talk about how great etsy.com is all day. This on-line venue lets independent artisans sell their handmade wares easily to the world! Type in anything, like “yellow dangling earrings” or “turquoise ceramic bowls,” and hundreds of artists from all over pop up with their products. Support the local handmade artists around you. I mean, cheap plastic crap from China is always at your fingertips, too. I believe in your right to choose.

I’d also like to point out that I have made special strides to ensure that one particular painting was available in print. I call it my “doomed painting.” (Picture here at left.) It has been sought after by several potential buyers but for some reason or another, it’s never found a real home. This painting’s wandering spirit can now wander much more affordably and widespread. I hope those fond of this quintessential Chicago neighborhood scene learn of this most recent manifestation: The $40 digital print. Please note these pictures uploaded on this blog are very small files and if you tried to enlarge the picture on your screen, you would see big ugly pixels. Buy a print, and see uninterrupted strokes of paint and almost too-real-to-be-true texture. These prints are selling at 13″x19″. Other sizes will be offered soon and any requests for specific dimensions are welcomed!

Your local artist,

Jean “I did not major in Marketing” Fitzgerald

P.S I almost forgot. Save the cost of shipping the print. Come to the Artwalk Ravenswood and pick one up from me in person. (Yes, those graveyard calendars will be there, too!) I will be at the corner of Berteau and Ravenswood on October 4th and 5th from 11am-6pm!!!

 

Virgin Mary Appears to Me at Work

This might be old news to Chicago folks but…the Virgin Mary has been sighted at the Kennedy expressway underpass at Fullerton Ave. An altar of candles and flowers surrounds this holy image made up of salt and oil on concrete. Last week, I finally pulled my car over to visit this Mary Apparition. It has gotten a fair amount of local publicity and has been on my commute for months. For a long while I thought it was just a memorial to a fatal accident, but it has been a Marian apparition all along! I parked my car and went in for a nice close-up of Big M. With all respect, I suspect a little magic marker touch-up was done to bring out her features…we all need a little touch-up with age I suppose…

So it was interesting that another Mary manifestation entered my life a week later… I encounter lots of unexpected events, requests, projects every time I go to work (where my title is the Craft Cottage coordinator) but today was extra special.

While walking out to the parking lot today, I saw the facilities manager and maintenance worker extracting something heavy and large from the back of a truck. Behold! The Virgin Mary was being dropped at my doorstep. I suddenly recalled an email from the day before asking if I wanted to restore a statue. Whether I liked it or not, there she was. I may not be the best Catholic on earth to be called on for Mary renovations, but the responsibility now rests with Jean, Craft Cottage Coordinator.

Before leaving, the maintenance worker rummaged around in the truck and procured the Virgin Mary’s detached thumb…surely broken in transit.

I giggled in awe at the heavy stone/concrete thumb rolling around in my palm. After negotiating the proper location for Mary with the workers, I quickly ran into the main building to proclaim the arrival of Mary… with her thumb, of course, proudly raised in the air! To prove that the art lady was not a crazy prophet, I took a group out to visit her and prove her existence. All afternoon, the thumb safely stayed in the pocket of my apron like a little rabbit’s foot.

My task now is to return Mary to her proper state. She has obviously had a botched nose job.

Her missing index finger also indicates her current disqualification for the military.

I’d like to think Mary is in no hurry to acquire a prosthetic trigger finger. One fellow employee has advised me to get some epoxy for her thumb and that I can build a new finger for her. I’m also currently investigating ways to strip it of its chipping coat of paint. Are there any stone sculpture renovators out there? I’ve already been told it is NOT okay to paint her in polka dots. I would never do something so tacky-ahem- but I’m open to hearing other ideas. How can I best restore Our Lady of Crafts???

Since Mary has arrived the last day of work at the Craft Cottage before I depart on my little road trip, I think it’s only fair that Mary’s thumb sits shotgun on my trip to Virginia next week. With Mary’s thumb’s blessings, the polka-dot car will surely hold up well enough in Appalachia and we won’t need to “thumb” any rides.