Jim Fitzpatrick talks about the inspiration for his art and how the style of his work evolved.
Presenter Joe McArdle poses the question "What is art?"
It's a shifting around of fragments of our world to bring it into agreement with our inner selves.
The need for art begins in childhood and never quite leaves us. There are layers of meaning in every image we see. Images contain symbolic values that are not necessarily apparent at first sight. To discover this value requires effort and thought.
Artist Jim Fitzpatrick started drawing at around seven or eight years of age he recalls how his early influences came from comic books. He produced his own comics which he would bring to school. Around the age of nine or ten, while visiting relatives in County Clare he would spend a lot of time drawing from American Sunday supplements that had come from America. It was also in Clare where he became immersed in a semi-supernatural world and the mystical stories of fairies. His early comics had a mystical overlay which included the great Celtic heroes like Cú Chulainn.
This contributed to the development of my style.
Jim Fitzpatrick believes the work that he does today is very similar to those early ideas while his style has evolved and developed. Over time, his work has also absorbed a lot of other influences such as the semi-decadent style of Harry Clarke, the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, the art nouveau style of Mooka in homage to Alphonse Maria Mucha, as well as Japanese prints. He points to The Book of Kells as the single biggest influence on his work.
It's a new mythology that's being created almost before our very eyes.
Jim Fitzpatrick emphasises the need for children to escape from the realities of life. He says that comic books give children a good introduction to reading. His son, for example, reads a lot of comic books such as Spiderman, which Jim Fitzpatrick describes as "the new mythologies".
A great deal of his work belongs to the subconscious. Many ideas come to him when he is in a semi-awake state, before he goes to sleep and before he gets up in the morning. One of the best examples of this is his painting 'Nuada The Sun God' from 'The Book of Conquests'. The entire painting just came to him, he saw it and he got it down on paper.
'Secret Languages: The Everywhere Gallery' was broadcast on 2 March 1982. The presenter is Joe Ardle McArdle.
'Secret Languages' was a six-part series in celebration of mass culture in our everyday lives: posters, cinema and fashion.
