{"id":3231,"date":"2021-10-26T09:15:51","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T09:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pagodared.com\/blog\/?p=3231"},"modified":"2021-10-26T15:20:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T15:20:03","slug":"patrick-fitzgerald-handmade-mechanic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pagodared.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/26\/patrick-fitzgerald-handmade-mechanic\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Fitzgerald: The Handmade Mechanic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1962, Patrick Fitzgerald<\/a> grew up in an industrial Midwestern landscape. \u201cIt was loud, daunting and dirty,\u201d he says, \u201cyet it possessed a powerful beauty that is still so vivid.\u201d As a child, he scavenged for junk and enjoyed tinkering with mechanical parts. He loved cars: \u201cI always enjoyed the aesthetics of their wheels, pulleys, levers and linkage, plus all the mysterious wires.\u201d He spent summers perfecting what he calls \u201ca child\u2019s version of alchemy,\u201d immersed in a world of machines and mechanics.<\/p>\n

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“New York Blower Car” by Patrick Fitzgerald<\/a> | W: 16.0″ D: 5.5″ H: 8.0″<\/p><\/div>\n

Today, an artist working in Chicago, he embodies that same sense of wonder. In miniature, Fitzgerald creates fleets of car-like machines, choosing imaginary \u201csponsors\u201d from a 1945 industrial phone directory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese companies are real, but any sponsorship of my cars is fiction,\u201d he explains. \u201cIn most cases it is meant as a form of homage to productivity and longevity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a child, Fitzgerald took pride in the companies that sponsored baseball teams and community events. Vintage catalogs, brochures and letterheads often become elements of collage in his work.<\/p>\n

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“Denkbilder” by Patrick Fitzgerald<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

In Michigan, Fitzgerald learned to work with metal and wood \u2014 scrap materials that his neighborhood offered up in abundance. He built soap box derby cars, elaborate forts and model airplanes. \u201cThe garage was my studio,\u201d he remembers.<\/p>\n

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“A + L Car” by Patrick Fitzgerald<\/a> | W: 6.25″ D: 12.5″ H: 2.75″<\/p><\/div>\n

As an adult artist, Fitzgerald\u2019s influences expanded. He became fascinated by African Art and developed a series of helmets and jackets that strung together elements of mask making alongside the emblems of mid-century American machinery.<\/p>\n

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“NY Blower” Helmet & Jacket and “W.A. Jones” Helmet & Jacket by Patrick Fitzgerald<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Fitzgerald constructs his cars, helmets and jackets from sheets of chipboard or heavy archival bookbinding, along with birch plywood, basswood and balsa wood. He sculpts hardware from gauge wires, brass and aluminum tubing, along with the occasional found metal sheet or spring.<\/p>\n

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“Jubilee Car” by Patrick Fitzgerald<\/a>\u00a0| W: 13.5″ D: 5.75″ H: 5.0″<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI like to design what the eye does not see, like underlying supports and braces,\u201d he says. \u201cI use wood, wires, tubing, screen, fabric and a variety of collage media.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The most labor-intensive part of the process involves surface treatments, finishes and hand lettering, which are applied in stages using several different types of acrylic and oil-based adhesives and sealants. The process is simple, refined by years of experience transforming found materials into extraordinary art.<\/p>\n

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For the last decade, Fitzgerald has been mining his early experiences, re-envisioning the mechanical world of his childhood through the eye of an artist. Behind the wheel of an out-of-commission junkyard car, a lifetime of ideas emerged. \u201cI realized the little cramped space that once offered me refuge and nurtured my imagination was too important to leave out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Works by Patrick Fitzgerald<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t