About Lisa Fittipaldi's famous paintings
Her History and Work
Born in Pontiac, Michigan in 1948, Lisa Fittipaldi attended the University of Michigan receiving a Bachelors of Art degree in education in 1970. She then attended nursing school at the University of South Carolina where she met her husband Al in 1972. They were married in New York in 1974. She worked at the Baltimore Burn Center as a trauma care burn specialist with a Masters degree from the University of Maryland in 1976. Fittipaldi again returned to school, receiving her Masters degree in accountancy from the University of Houston in 1982. She changed careers to move into the field of high finance by pursuing a career as a CPA and financial analyst that year.
Lisa Fittipaldi was a trauma-care nurse and a Certified Public Accountant before she lost her sight in 1993 to a devastating Autoimmune disease. Memories of having traveled the world with her husband Al, a career Naval Officer, has allowed her to depict daily life in astonishingly rich color and depth. Prior to her vision loss she had no art background. The challenge of a child's watercolor set, thrown down like a gauntlet by her frustrated husband, opened the door to a new life in the field of art. A self-taught artist, Fittipaldi began selling her works in 1995, first at local shows, then at art fairs around the country and today on her website and throughout the world. She has appeared on dozens of local and national television programs, grants radio and print interviews, and gives speeches and demonstrations to audiences worldwide. Painting was one of several avenues that Fittipaldi explored as a way of finding her place in the world after becoming blind. She quickly understood that painting her storehouse of memories was both a source of nourishment and a way to keep her world alive in her mind. As she began to paint, she also realized that the principles of art gave her a system for comprehending and navigating the three-dimensional world she could no longer see. Whatever she learned in her painting studio, working on a two-dimensional canvas, could be applied to her understanding of the vast dark world she had lived in.
Autoimmune Diseases may appear to be quite different, but they share fundamental characteristics. Each has no known cause, no cure and is a lifelong journey in management. When Lisa went blind in 1993, she discovered that bravery and honesty were the keys to emotional management. Skeptics couldn't understand how she could function as a blind person in a sighted world. She was more concerned with just functioning and surviving. Expressing herself thru writing, creating beautiful works of art and exploring sculpture. In learning inner peace and true inner happiness, without mood elevators or external interventions. Feeling that chemotherapies, immune replacement infusions and injectable biologics were enough for her body to handle. Each episode of symptoms bring another layer of diagnosis confirmed by extensive testing. First came Cogan's syndrome which affected the eyes and inner ears and severe inflammation of the blood vessels. This very rare autoimmune disease was followed by two others. Mixed Connective Tissue Disease and Genetic Primary Immune Deficiency. Lisa is now registered with The International Organization of Rare Diseases. Through this time extensive process, Lisa has learned to travel extensively, to become addicted to exercise and to once again unleash there creative nature.
Since her entrance into the International world of art, she has sold over 15,000 paintings internationally, in oil, acrylic and watercolor. Since 1997, her famous paintings composing complex scenes of diverse cultures and everyday life have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. A deep understanding of color theory supplanted her need to "feel" the consistency of the paint to know what color she was using. Colorful abstract paintings have given way to still life and landscape, and ultimately too complex figurative paintings of a teeming marketplace or a crowded jazz club. Lisa's story can be found in numerous publications, in multiple languages. These books and publications have been printed in Russian, Hungarian, Spanish, Polish, Japanese, Chinese and many other languages. (ibid. Wentworth Art Gallery)
Realizing a deficit in our educational system, she founded the Mind's Eye Foundation in 1999 to provide specially equipped computers and software to vision and hearing impaired schoolchildren so they can remain mainstreamed in our schools. Lisa is presently providing Watercolor and Oil classes to people interested in pursuing a new hobby or career in the field of art.
Since 2019 her disease has gotten progressively worse, however modern medicine has been able to return much of her vision, and provide her with an acceptable lifestyle. She and Al now enjoy traveling the world extensively and she has dedicated most of her life to the world of art. Among her other recent endeavors, she has delved into the world of sculpture, teaching and writing. Since 2019, Lisa and Al have published several books that can be found in print as well as Amazon.com eBooks under Lisa Fittipaldi.
Television and News
PERIODICALS:
PEOPLE MAGAZINE 15 October 2001 "In Her Mind's Eye" by Chris Coats Pages 200-202
SOUTHWEST ART MAGAZINE April 1999 "Best of Texas" by Kristin Bucher
ART BABY ART November 1999 "The Story of Lisa Fittipaldi" by Al James
FINE ART MAGAZINE Spring 2001 "Creating Art with the Mind's Eye" by Al James Pages 79-80
HOPE MAGAZINE Spring 2001 / No. 26 "Trusting the Mind's Eye" by Ivette M. Yee Pages 44-47
YOU MAGAZINE September 2001 / No. 725 "Art of Darkness" (excerpted) Pages 136-137 Cape Town, South Africa
DAILY WORD October 2002 "A Journey of Discovery" by Colleen Zuck Pages 6-11
STERN MAGAZINE April 2001 / No. 19 "Gefuhlte Farben" by Stern staff Page 220
CELEBRATE AUSTIN Spring 2001 "An Artist Who Happens to be Blind" by Cynthia Maddox Page 106
AUSTIN MAGAZINE Spring 2001 "It's All in Her Head" by Kay Powers Pages 40-44
GOOD LIFE MAGAZINE December 2002 "Blind Ambition" by Diana Erbo
GOOD LIFE COACHING December 2002 / No. 44 "Living the Creative Life" by Sharon Good
ANGELS ON EARTH Sept/Oct 2003 "My Mind's Eye"
SPECIAL AWARDS:
Appointed to the Texas State Independent Living Council by President Elect George W. Bush
Presented the key to the City of Bal Harbour
Ophra Winfrey Show 1997 and 2002
Texas Country Reporter Dec 22, 2012
Library of Congress June, 2019
American Pickers Dec 30, 2020
EXHIBITIONS:
Museum of Fine Art Austin July 1997
Florence Art Gallery "Wonders of the Mind's Eye" November 1998.
Florence Art Gallery "Art Colors Life" March 1999
Dallas Museum of Art "Beaux Art" April 1999
Pink Palace Museum October 1999
Art Expo, New York March 2001
Witte Museum "Blind Ambition: The Art of Lisa Fittipaldi" June/July 2001
Sands Point Museum "Blind Ambition" June 2002
Sternberg Museum "Blind Ambition" July-December 2002
British Museum of art
MEMBERSHIP Artist Acquisition Group McNay Museum of Art
Join My Journey
Art, in the form of painting, sculpting, teaching or writing, is an ongoing process of learning and experimentation. please feel free to express your feelings and concerns as we journey through the wonderful world of art through the Mind's Eye.