Editor's Note: The following piece has been shared with IrishCentral from the American Irish Historical Society's (AIHS) Treasures of Time, stories from the collections and archives of the American Irish Historical Society in New York City. Joan Fitzgerald (1930-2024) was born in Chicago, IL, in 1930 to parents of Irish heritage on both sides. At the time of her discovery by the American art world (around the mid-1960s), abstract expressionism was already widely accepted by mainstream critics. Though it could be argued that Fitzgerald’s art was never explicitly Irish, her command of the natural world shares many themes with Irish folklore, literature, and art. This column is adapted from the blog of the American Irish Historical Society (AIHS).