‘Star Gazer’ is a personal work - part of a series of anthropomorphized celestial bodies, and the most recent of the three pieces in the series.
When you are gazing up at the stars in wonder, remember that you are also wonderful and worthy of awe.
The idea in this series was to depict each celestial body exhibiting emotions I typically associate with them, and hosting a sort of animal guide. For the star, I wanted to express a sense of curiosity, wishing, and wonder. Naturally, his animal guide is a cricket, reminiscent of Jiminy from Pinocchio. This painting asks: what if a star was looking up at the night sky, amazed by the vastness and beauty of it all, perhaps in realization that he is also a part of the intricate mechanical workings of the universe? What if he was wishing on things composed of the substance of which he also is made? If we are made of the same stuff as well, perhaps we have all the necessary parts to make our own wishes and dreams come true.
Acrylic
9.5x13.5”
© Erin Fitzgerald 2019
Everyone Has Rough Mornings Sometimes is a personal work - part of a series of anthropomorphized celestial bodies, and the second of the three pieces in the series.
The sun has a tough job to do.
The idea in this series was to depict each celestial body exhibiting emotions I typically associate with them, accompanied by an animal friend. I’m a night owl and an avid coffee drinker, so I am not at my best first thing in the morning. The poor sun has an earlier day than all of us. He needs his coffee, and sometimes even getting that sweet caffeine boost can be a struggle.
Acrylic
15 x 10”
© Erin Fitzgerald 2018
‘Midnight Surprise and Delight’ is a personal work - part of a series of anthropomorphized celestial bodies, and the first of the three pieces in the series.
It is assuredly true that the man on the moon is a witness to a million glorious adventures and the most curious of goings-on.
Night is the time of adventure - when the hunters are most alive, when mischief is most easily found, when the strangest events take place. It is the time that your imagination must fill in the dark spaces. It’s a time for creativity and for mystery…
…especially when the moon is full.
Mixed Media
6 x 11”
©Erin Fitzgerald 2017
Character designs for a potential book project set in New Orleans. Our story stars a zydeco-playing, foot-stomping, merry band of forest and swamp critters.
Acrylic
Various Sizes
© Erin Fitzgerald 2016
on banjo
percussion
on mandolin
vocalist
spoons and claps
on fiddle
Some experimentation with size relationships, breaking borders, and monochromatic underpainting.
Is it a huge fish, or a tiny woman? Actual shipwreck, or fishbowl shipwreck?
Acrylic
11 x 16”
© Erin Fitzgerald 2016
This piece is an artist’s rendition accompaniment to a magazine article titled "The Intelligent Life of the City Raccoon." The article discusses how raccoons that dwell in urban environments are smarter than their country counterparts due to repeated interaction with human technology, such as complex trashcan locking mechanisms.
Acrylic
8.5 x 11”
© Erin Fitzgerald 2016
What says “Christmas” better than a giant bear putting a star on top of the biggest tree in the forest?
For bear lovers - nothing, of course.
Design for a Christmas card.
Acrylic
11 x 14”
© Erin Fitzgerald 2017
A project pitch for a children’s book, The Bear and the Moon features a hungry bear that greedily eats everything in his forest, and learns a valuable lesson about respecting his environment along the way. Inspired in part by Native American lore and in part by a current need for drastic changes in the way we interact with our world.
This collection features a cover, spot illustration, a cover page, and a full-page spread.
Acrylic and Digital Mediums
Various Sizes
© Erin Fitzgerald 2016
This piece is meant to accompany (and truly expand upon with a great deal of creative license) the Edward Lear poem:
"There was an old person whose habits,
Induced him to feed upon rabbits.
When he'd eaten 18,
He turned perfectly green,
Upon which he relinquished the habit."
The illustration details the aftermath of such a decision.
Inkwash
8 x 10”
© Erin Fitzgerald 2016
What would happen if Cinderella's fairy godmother had some sinister plans for her, instead of good intentions? What would happen if she got stuck in that pumpkin forever? What if that jolly blue fairy was actually a sinister collector of princess-stuffed gourds? We may never know, but we can imagine...
Pencil
11 x 14”
© Erin Fitzgerald 2017
A fear of books, most certainly stemming from terrifying childhood experiences of overzealous narrating grandmothers.
Ink
8.5 x 11”
© Erin Fitzgerald 2015
A visualization of the following poem:
‘I have pretty ankles,
and look at my wrists, I have pretty
wrists
o my god,
I thought it was all working,
and now it's her again,
every time she phones you go crazy,
you told me it was over
you told me it was finished,
listen, I've lived long enough to become a
good woman,
why do you need a bad woman?
you need to be tortured, don't you?
you think life is rotten if somebody treats you
rotten it all fits, doesn't it?
tell me, is that it? do you want to be treated like a
piece of shit?
and my son, my son was going to meet you.
I told my son
and I dropped all my lovers.
I stood up in a cafe and screamed
I'M IN LOVE,
and now you've made a fool of me. . .
I'm sorry, I said, I'm really sorry.
hold me, she said, will you please hold me?
I've never been in one of these things before, I said,
these triangles. . .
she got up and lit a cigarette, she was trembling all
over. she paced up and down,wild and crazy. she had
a small body. her arms were thin,very thin and when
she screamed and started beating me I held her
wrists and then I got it through the eyes:hatred,
centuries deep and true. I was wrong and graceless and
sick. all the things I had learned had been wasted.
there was no creature living as foul as I
and all my poems were
false.’
-Charles Bukowski
Ink
© Erin Fitzgerald 2015
