Source: Telegraph Journal,
By Grant Kerr
Telegraph - Journal
At age 13,
when most boys are nurturing their first crush, Jason Fitzpatrick was inking
himself his first tattoo.
Using one
of his mother’s sewing needles, he burned the pointed tip with a match, would
it wit thread dipping in India ink, then methodically pierced the skin of his
leg. As ink and blood mixed Fitzpatrick
gritted his teeth, finishing a small skull that he wears to this day. Over the ensuing two decades, the
For many,
tattoos are just another craze, like a hardcore, permanent version of the hula
hoop. “Look at me,” they call out. “See how cool I am?”
But
Fitzpatrick, the artist, takes them seriously.
He’s not sure how many, but figures he has in the neighbourhood of 20.
That body
of work, his body, is key to his new show, body/marks. which opens tonight at
the City of Saint John Gallery ) Saint John Arts Centre,
“I thought
it (tattoos) was a good way of expressing yourself and I wanted to extend it
and wanted to pull it,” Fitzpatrick said Thursday, standing in the midst of his
show at the SJAC. By “pull it”,
Fitzpatrick means literally. The
dozen-or-so works in the “body” half of the show are pulled straight from the
artist’s muscular frame. The finished
works, protectively encased in glass, are ink and blood on paper.
This tattoo
art was rendered at events, or “actions, where a tattoo artist inked
Fitzpatrick in a gallery setting. A
third participant, a print maker, was on standby to press paper against the
artist’s weeping flesh, capturing the finished works.
While some
are gently undulating lines, one series of prints calls out, “HEPC”. Literally.
The fact
that an audience is present when the work is being rendered makes the process
all the more on the edge.
“They took
that print off my chest and the audience went, “Whoa!” and backed up a bit,”
Fitzpatrick said, still pleased at the shock value of the “action”.
“It’s about
the doing of it, the tensions.”
FITZPATRICK: First Show Back
in
What wasn’t
lost on the audience is that Fitzpatrick has hepatitis C, although he says he
doesn’t know how he picked it up. He’s
healthy, though, with a ruddy complexion, strong-limbed in black jeans,
untucked white collared shirt and jeans jacket, shod in black, pull-on boots. His short blond hair juts to one side like a
tongue.
“I’m
supposed to go for a checkup every six months,”
Fitzpatrick said, fresh off two exhibitions in
A cement
worker by day, this is Fitzpatrick’s first show back in
Growing up
in the
But he’s
cleaned up, got married, has an infant son and has pursued his art with a
vengeance. In
Body/marks
is as much about the process as the art on the walls.
Two of the
works in the main room of the City Gallery – Jennifer and Mark – are 30 foot
rolls of paper, hung high with the majority of the drawings unseen and still
rolled.
The huge
works took about a year each to create, scribbling graphite sticks on paper,
creating a textured sheen of blackness.
Fitzpatrick
had to learn to use his left hand to complete the gruelling, often mind-numbing
task.
“Day one to
day 30, you have to keep making things up (in your head) to keep it up as a
task,” Fitzpatrick said.
It’s the
journey that counts as much as the destination in Fitzpatrick’s world.
“The way I
approach conceptual art is that the actual process and the ending (result),
it’s an extension of ideas.”
Rubbed is a
rubbing of a drawing. Two others are
drawings, using some of the same process as the large works, but incorporate
Fitzpatrick’s handmade crayons as well.
Across the
hall in the Frazee Gallery, some more of his work sits alongside that of his
mother Joanne Fitzpatrick’s traditional paintings.
No stranger
to art openings, Jason Fitzpatrick is a shade nervous.
“This is a
big deal for me. This is were I was
born.