"FLOWER POWER" PAINTINGS REPRESENT ARTIST'S COMMITMENT TO PEACE

Painter Mattison Fitzgerald calls on communities to join artistic protest for peace

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- March 24, 2003 - San Francisco School Artist, Mattison Fitzgerald, announced she is renewing her commitment to the peace process by rededicating herself to an art series she established in 1998 as a protest to all wars - past, present and future, entitled, "Flower Power".

Fitzgerald's colorful and vibrant works remind people how powerful individual actions are. Each citizen's thoughts and creativity do count in times of change. Fitzgerald is calling on communities to get the Flower
Power word out by joining her in making Flower Power art.

This May Day series was created when Fiztgerald was working on huge 15' canvass and was hit by a car. Fitzgerald temporarily lost the ability to walk and even more frustrating, could not even pick up her own canvass for years. Fitzgerald says, It forced me to work on a very small scale, through pain and tears, but it also helped me refocus on the need for art to be on the planet and how delicate it all really is."

Fitzgerald believes flower power art will help create positive global change, help people deal with the ills and stresses of impending war. It will also send another group message to the government that war is not an acceptable solution to the world's problems. Fitzgerald states that she will "continue to create Flower Power art for the rest of her life if people keep throwing wars."

As the name implies, Fitzgerald's Flower Power paintings are nostalgically reminiscent of the art that originated in the 1960's, from the flower power days in Golden Gate Park, and consist of hundreds of small renditions of flowers that Fitzgerald names after accomplished women of the 20th century and inspirational women of the 21st century. She says "Its a huge color experience" One painting depicts white poppies, which were a symbol of Armistice Day in World War I -- the war to end all wars. Fitzgerald's great uncle, Daniel Joseph Fitzgerald, was killed in World War I when he was only 18 years old.

Fitzgerald recalls the exact day flower power started. She and her sister were at a playground in Golden Gate Park in 1966, picking flowers from the lawn and making flower crowns. "The 'big kids' came over and asked us how we made the crowns, so we showed them. A newspaper photographer took a picture of the 'big kids,' and an article came out the next day that referred to these 'big kids' with their flower crowns as 'Flower Children.' The rest is history."

Fitzgerald, an internationally recognized artist, grew up in the Bay Area surrounded by the San Francisco School of artists. She met modernist painter Sam Francis when she was five, and recalls Nathan Oliveira San Francisco school figurative painter dragging works around his downtown Palo Alto studio. "We used to peek in the one window and around the canvass to see what Nathan was doing," said Fitzgerald. "These artists were all around, and they affected the consciousness of the day by awakening the world to creativity, and the arts and the future. That consciousness helped people, even children, understand that we have the power to end war."

"It is up to all of us, each one of us, to begin a healing process and to create a world of art that we can all benefit from," says Fitzgerald. "Art, unlike military spending which stockpiles and creates deadened economies, art does not stockpile, and every dollar spent on the arts gives back 25 times its original value to our communities. I see the arts as a significant solution to many of the problems affecting the world today."

Fitzgerald suggests a number of fun and creative activities to promote Flower Power:

· Florists can offer discounted Flower Power bouquets and donate the proceeds to peace organizations
· Gardeners can spread their flowers with tags of peace around the community
· Stylists can weave flowers into hair
· Playwrights and poets can host Flower Power readings
· Artists can exhibit Flower Power works in galleries, and at businesses that display art
· Fashion designers can bring back Flower Power fabrics
· Bikers can coordinate and participate in Flower Power group rides
· Children can make Flower Power potato, stamp, and sponge art
· Teenagers can decorate cars with Flower Power symbols using tempra paints
· Seniors can encourage their families and friends to do flower power cars and display them on their homes and businesses

Fitzgerald has created a poster to mark this year's Flower Power commitment to peace, and is making this poster available to the public through her Fitz and Fitz Web site, at http://www.FitzandFitzbiz.com. Posters cost $75.00 unsigned, or $250.00 signed, not including tax and shipping. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Green Peace (www.greenpeace.org) and Amnesty International (www.amnesty.org). For more information, contact Mattison Fitzgerald at mattison@att.net or (800) 969-7878. Anyone interested in sending digital images of their own Flower Power art to Fitzgerald for posting on the Fitz and Fitz Web site may do so by May Day (May 1, 2003).