Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Mattison FitzGerald relaxes by a fountain, part of a garden she designed in Saratoga.

Artist brings art and nature together

By Shari Kaplan

As the dawning of the new millennium nears, Bay Area native Mattison FitzGerald has seen a similar light dawning in her life.

Both her art career and her M Landscape Design business began, grew and are flourishing in the 1990s. Her series "Ascending 2 Abstraction" is currently on exhibit at Los Gatos' 2wenty 9ine East Main Cafe. She also brings her creative touch to gardens in Los Gatos, Saratoga and elsewhere in the area.

She's come a long way since her first art accolade: first place in a 1971 Easter coloring contest sponsored by a grocery store. While waiting for her creative ship to come in, FitzGerald worked as a florist, park ranger, museum curator and Youth Science Institute instructor. She also earned a bachelor's degree in fine art from UC-Santa Cruz and a master's degree in museum studies from John F. Kennedy University.

In the early 1990s, she combined her love of art and nature into M Art/M Gallery and M Landscape Design. The "M" stands not for her first name but for "Millennium." She'd already had a taste of success in both areas when she lived in Santa Barbara County--airbrushing a whale model for a museum and designing nature trails for the parks department.

Now that taste is much sweeter. In recent years her series have hung in many South Bay art galleries, coffeehouses, billiard parlors and restaurants.

FitzGerald's colorful art, which used to be of more tangible things, took a turn for the fluid, abstract and mystical following her recovery from a series of automobile accidents as well as a spiritual near-death experience. When she does paint more realistically, it's often related to nature, as in her upcoming "Flower Power" series.

"I let all the creativity dam up when I work, and I feel really fragile--in need of connecting in many levels and dimensions," she explains. "When I start a new series, I always cry a little. It starts the avalanche of work. In the creative process, I'm always learning more on all levels."

Among the inspirations for "Ascending 2 Abstraction" was a lightning storm she saw at Sea Ranch on the Sonoma Coast. The electrifying experience found its way to her canvas, along with inspirations from other healing experiences.

Although abstract, most pieces contain recognizable shapes and patterns that beckon the viewer to identify with them. Composed mainly of green, blue, indigo, magenta and purple, the paintings are what FitzGerald calls her "Sea Ranch colors."

"I think my art is flavored from love, energy, sensitivities and fun. Even though my work is powerful and intense, it's fun," she adds.

"The world needs to have more fun--fun is healing. My work is always about healing: internally, politically, socially, environmentally. I am an idealist--a far from perfect one, but I like being one."

When not being an idealistic artist, FitzGerald keeps busy designing botanical landscapes, mosaics, steppingstones, sculptures and walkways for M Landscape clients. Among these is an English garden on Saratoga's Bellgrove Circle, where latticework hides a freeway soundwall and bubbling fountains act as sound filters.

For information on FitzGerald's artistic endeavors, call 947-7878 or visit her Web site.

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