[caption id="attachment_67313" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Roisin Fitzpatrick pictured in front of some of her artwork at the Irish Consulate."]
Artist Roisin Fitzpatrick has been on quite an adventure for the past two and-a-half-years.
Her latest exhibition, at the Irish Consulate on Park Avenue, is the sixth in that time period. Her debut was at the New York Art Expo, and then she had two shows each at galleries on Prince Street in Soho and on 26th Street in Chelsea.
"It's been a wonderful experience," she said. "People have been very helpful and very supportive and kind.
"New York is obviously a very challenging city, but, having said that, people in general have been very receptive and enthusiastic," said the Bray, Co. Wicklow-based Fitzpatrick.
"And there are more opportunities here for the artist," she said.
Among the many who've helped her adjust to the city are Dublin artist Corban Walker and Origin Theatre Company director George Heslin.
"He's always been very kind with his time and energy," she said of the Limerick native Heslin, "even though he's a very busy man."
Her story of her near-death experience a few years ago following a brain aneurysm has struck a chord with those she's met. She tells her listeners how she resolved at the time to turn the event into a "positive, life-changing experience."
The primary intention of Fitzpatrick's art is to "share the bliss and beauty" of the light she experienced during that episode.
Her new career was
a dramatic change of direction for Fitzpatrick, a graduate
of both Trinity College
Dublin and the University of Geneva. She'd previously worked for the United Nations, the European Commission
and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
She now counts Deepak Chopra among her admirers, while TV producer Mark Burnett and his wife, the actress Roma Downey, are collectors. Her artworks are also on display in Richard Branson's resort and Fitzpatrick's Hotels in New York.
Loretta Brennan Glucksman, another who has been encouraging, will formally launch the exhibit at an invitation-only event at the Consulate on next Wednesday.
Fitzpatrick, whose parents both died in recent times, said that 10 percent of any art purchased or commissioned during the exhibition will be donated to the American Ireland Fund's Barretstown and Laura Lynn projects.
For more information go to
roisinfitzpatrick.com.
