Tony Fitzpatrick’s No. 9

White background with various illustrations and images all over it (butterfly, cat-headed person in a tie riding a scooter, elephant-headed person in a dress, Christmas string lights etc). There is a large illustartion of a green and white bird perched on a brown branch in the middle of the button.

This image of a bird and very prominent “No. 9” is part of Tony Fitzpatrick’s collection of etchings by that title. Tony Fitzpatrick is a Chicago based artist who began his art career in the 1980s drawing with colored pencils in a store front gallery in Villa Park, Illinois. This collection, No. 9, was reviewed in the Austin Chronicle in December of 2009. The reviewer, Wayne Brenner, said the following about the collection, "This art is spectacular in its meticulous arrangements of images – birds, women, snakes, flowers, cityscapes – and the borrowed texts adhered. The works feature a central figure surrounded by smaller figures and sharp typography, the whole thing as busy as a galaxy of information without being cluttered, offering an idea of what holy file-drawer labels might look like in the main warehouse (carved from pure crystal, illuminated by some energy within) of some God of Memory."

The full title of this collection is “No. 9, An Artist’s Journal” as the inspiration for the etchings all came from the daily musings and experiences of Tony throughout his life. His pieces were also inspired by his surroundings while in Tokyo, Chicago, and New Orleans.