""Fitzpatrick is an auteur of quintessentially American images," wrote Jenifer P. Borum in a 1993 issue of . "His is an often violent, but always astute look at the darker side of American life, rendered with tattoo-parlor frankness and unmistakably Catholic drama and pathos.""
"'I'd say, 'Why are you giving all our bread to the birds?,' he told an interviewer in 2021, as reported by Chicago's WBEZ, recalling his confusion over her habit of tossing toast crumbs to sparrows and mourning doves when she had eight young mouths to feed. "'You know, birds are the first music the Irish ever had,' she said. 'If you're quiet and you watch, for a piece of bread you can hear God sing.'""
Tony Fitzpatrick was a multidisciplinary artist, poet, and actor from Chicago whose collages, prints, paintings, and drawings frequently featured bird imagery and gritty urban themes. He was born November 24, 1958, in Chicago, one of eight children raised Catholic in Lombard, Illinois. He began drawing as a child and credited his grandmother with instilling his love of birds, recounting her habit of feeding sparrows and mourning doves. He worked many jobs—including bouncer, boxer, bartender, caddy, construction worker, and radio host—and founded galleries to elevate Chicago talent. He died of a heart attack at sixty-six while awaiting a double lung transplant on October 11.
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