By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
October 17, 1999
There was no love lost early on in Tony and Michele Fitzpatrick’s relationship. He was an artist. She ran a gallery. He thought she was a know-it-all. She viewed him as a platonic buddy.
Then one day in 1990, he asked if he could draw her. They spent weeks together, talking, bickering and getting to know each other. One night when he wasn’t in the studio, Michele and a friend took a closer look at the drawing he was working on.
And she cried.
“I think in every relationship, there’s a turning point when you look at a person and realize that your feelings are a lot stronger than friendship,” Michele says. “For me, it was when I saw the drawing. Tony used to write a lot of poetry into his big portraits and when I read what he wrote about us, I couldn’t believe it. It was such a beautiful, romantic piece. I was unnerved at the same time, though, by how observant and sweet he was.”
He says, “I thought she had absolutely the most beautiful face that I had ever seen. But even while I was drawing her, I still thought she was a pain.”
The next day, they had plans to meet at the Art Institute. She didn’t realize that it was supposed to be a date, since they had never technically been on one. So she brought along a friend. Another man.
“He was a nice guy, but he was a guy,” Tony says. “So I ignored him. Then I ditched them in the museum.”
By this time, they were working together daily at the late, great World Tattoo Gallery.
“I had three partners in World Tattoo, and none of us knew how to do anything but throw great parties,” Tony says. “We didn’t know how to run a business. I lured Michele away from another gallery to run ours. For the first six months we worked together, I couldn’t stand her. She knew everything that we didn’t and she’d constantly dismiss me to my studio. She’d say, `Go draw your pictures.’ ”
Laughing, Michele says, “You used to beg me to go out with you all the time!”
Their first official date occurred thanks to artist Ed Paschke. Tony and Ed had plans to go watch Evander Holyfield fight George Foreman. Ed couldn’t make it. Tony, who didn’t want to go alone, invited Michele.
“We got pizza first and kissed in the cab,” Tony remembers. “It was really fun. It was the first time I had gone out with someone where we were pals first. All along, we kept saying, `This isn’t a date. We’re just friends.’ ”
On June 5, 1991, these friends got married. Now both 40, Tony and Michele are the parents of Max, 7, and Gaby, 4.
