LINCOLN PARK — It’s no secret that Tony Fitzpatrick is Chicago’s birdman.
His obsession with flying beasts came early, inspired by his late grandmother, and he never let it go.
Fitzpatrick has told the story many times before but it was nice to hear it again Tuesday as a crew worked to install the upcoming showing of his “Secret Birds” series at the DePaul University Art Museum.
“Every morning she would throw a piece of bread out the window for the birds, sometimes she would put jelly on it. I come from a family of eight kids. We were taught not to waste food. We were taught it was a sin,” Fitzpatrick said.
“I’d ask her, ‘Why are you wasting bread on the birds,’ the little s--- that I was. And she said, for a piece of bread you can hear God sing. She opened the window, and I could hear all these voices.”
In Catholic school, Fitzpatrick secretly scribbled pictures in the back of his notebook during class.
“Birds and naked women. Sometimes, naked women with bird heads,” the artist said. “The nuns really didn’t like the naked women. They sent me to a shrink who told my mother. … I was not crazy and would make her proud one day, though that would be a long process.”
Fitzpatrick says he gave up drawing naked ladies.
But he could never quit drawing his secret birds.
French author and philosopher “Albert Camus said it and it’s true. Artists spend the totality of their creative lives cycling back to one or two images that opened them up,” Fitzpatrick said.
“Birds, my metaphoric touchstones. They keep cycling back in to my mind.
“Also whenever I needed to get out of trouble with my mother, I would draw her a cardinal. It got me out of Dutch.”
Last year, after surviving a near-fatal heart attack, Fitzpatrick returned to his studio with feathered friends on his mind. He set out to capture all they mean to him in a flock of storytelling collages — each bird a poem, a feeling, a memory, an inspiration.
Museum associate director Laura Fatemi says she knows people have seen some of Fitzpatrick’s bird series — he has posted some of his creations on Facebook and had a small showing at the Poetry Foundation last year — but this show is different.
Fitzpatrick’s first show at the DePaul Art Museum was in 2003, about the time the artist starting making early bird collages.
“I think it’s an important series. There’s a lot of work from the last year. … He had heart surgery, and I can see he’s commemorating so many people who have given joy to him over the years, the birds themselves,” Fatemi said.
“It’s been a change for him. His palette is a lot brighter. I think it’s time for Chicago to see his work again.”
Fitzpatrick’s “Secret Birds” pays tribute to heroes Bruce Lee and Otis Clay and the songstresses who have tugged on his heart, Neko Case, Annie Lennox, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, Etta James and Amy Winehouse, to name a few.
“Monster Bird,” formerly known as the national bird of Chi-Raq, is a portrait of a predator with a bloody beak, his midnight wings adorned with the names of Chicago’s violent neighborhood — Englewood, Roseland and Humboldt Park.
Fitzpatrick’s tribute to the majestic peregrine falcons known to nest on balconies of Chicago high-rises is adorned with a poem that captures the harsh reality of living in his city: “You can hang on the cross or you can pound in the nails.”
The "Secret Birds" reflects Fitzpatrick’s view of the world. The series is an artistic commentary on harsh “injustices and inequities found in Chicago and beyond.”
The sheer number of storytelling birds — 59 in all — is proof that Fitzpatrick has a lot to say, maybe even more than he realized.
“All these birds. Damn near every bird you see in ["Secret Birds"] you can see in our city. It’s the first time I’ve seen this much of my work together,” he said.
“I hope people take away some joy. A smile. A realization that the nature that surrounds them is absolutely miraculous. … And they take the time to go seek it out.”
Tony Fitzpatrick’s “Secret Birds” exhibits opens Thursday night at the DePaul University Art Museum, 935 W. Fullerton.
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