Read Along with Ivey FitzGerald’s Artist Talk
Hi. My name is Ivey FitzGerald. I’m 12 years old. This is my second year of taking art classes at 1+1=1. You might wonder where artists get their inspiration. I get my inspiration from Nature, and interpreting how I see it. I am motivated by what I see around me. My surroundings affect my art and how it turns out. I am also inspired by my dreams. Sometimes I have weird dreams but they can inspire me to use them in my art.
I like making art because when I need to get away from what is happening in my life, art helps me calm down. Creating art helps me express the way I am feeling. It also makes me feel accomplished. I like knowing that someone has something I made in their house — that makes me feel happy!
I created the painting, “March 11th” with tape and stencils over a colorful underpainting. I used bright colors for the under painting because at the beginning I thought it was going to be a fun, happy painting. But when I started over-painting I chose black because 2020 was filled with darkness.
The tape and stencils make the under layer show through. I used a texture tool to add variety to my brush strokes. I think this painting has a wild, backwards, or anxious feeling to it. It seems like a storm is coming and the world is going to end.
When I paint I dont think ahead of myself. I just stay in the moment and I don’t have an image of what I want. I just do what I want with it. With this piece, I didn’t know what I was going to do at all. I started by making some big strokes and looked at it for a while, wondering what I wanted to do with it. Then I figured out that I should add 2020. My teacher messed up and told me to put the numbers backwards when I stenciled them. So I ended up having a backwards 2020, just like in reality! March 11th is also when the world shut down for me. That’s why I titled the painting, “March 11th.”
Thank you for listening. And thank you for thinking about buying my art so I can help some good charities like Montana Human Rights Network.