abstract – The Art of Shelli Fitzpatrick

My glitch art technique for urban inspired artworks.

How I use digital glitches to represent urban scenes.

I like to use digital glitches to represent urban life by transforming cityscapes and everyday urban visuals into dynamic, abstract compositions that reflect the energy, complexity, and digital saturation of modern environments.

I developed a technique of stacking digital effects to create what I like to describe as “modern glitch art,” often portraying downtown centers, glowing windows at night, and architectural forms in a “glitch art cubist style.”

These distortions mimic the sensory overload and fragmented nature of city living, while vibrant colors and layered contrasts evoke movement and rhythm. A main element of my work aims to make digital art that doesn’t look digital and by using glitches not as errors, but as a deliberate aesthetic through which I feel that I can capture the pulse of urban culture.

I focus on urban landscapes and cityscapes, particularly elements like downtown city centers, glowing windows at night, roadways, and architectural silhouettes. My work often captures the mood and energy of urban environments through abstract and glitch art techniques, transforming them into vibrant, stylized compositions. Pieces like Inner City Abstract (seen in the image above) reflect impressions of city life after dark, emphasizing light, structure, and digital distortion.

Explore more of my work at shellifitzpatrick.com

Where some of my abstract ideas come from.

four abstract artworks depicting turbulence — See my entire collection of abstract artwork here

I was just looking at some of my abstract artworks and I noticed that many of them have a wavy turbulent sea theme. That got me thinking about why I create so many pieces that have a tossed and unsettled stormy vibe.

Okay, right here I could get deep and spiritual and say it is a reflection of my inner feelings brought on by the instability of my surroundings in the world, but that doesn’t explain the pieces I created long ago when things were relatively peaceful in my life. I could also say it was a subconcious inner longing for the sea, but that is far from the truth since I am from Colorado and the beaches I grew up with were the rocky shores of cold mountain lakes.

Then I rememebered a time in my past when I was working as a laundry mat attendant and we had those huge triple loader washing machines that have a round window in the front and you can see the colorful clothing being tossed about in the soapy sudsy water. I recall wishing I could capture those kind of scenes with a camera or paints, and all of a sudden, now I know why I tend to create those kind of abstracts over and over again. It is my way of trying to recreate those images from my memory. Not very romantic, I know, but it was kind of surprising to realize it while I was musing.

The Struggle: we all have inner struggles of some kind. Here is mine…

example of modern digital abstract art — Click to buy a print of this artwork.

There is a very real struggle that goes on in the life of a visual artist. That struggle is between creating and promoting. For instance, I know that if I want to sell my art I need a promoter and since I can’t pay someone to do it for me then I must be my own promoter. And in the world of online art sales one of the most touted ways to do that is to blog about your art and life as an artist.

Here is where the struggle comes in. Many visual artists are introverts who have a hard time writing about anything and especially their own art and life.

We generally don’t want to draw attention to ourselves and will avoid having the spotlight. However if we ever intend to sell any art we must get it out there in front of potential buyers and collectors.

Ah, the struggle is real, especially for me personally. So with this post I just wanted to put that out there for the reader in the hopes that you will have patience with artists like me who go long periods of time without a new blog or social media post.

Autumn is a Lady

Autumn is a Lady is a modern contemporary abstract piece I recently created and when I was finished the title jumped out at me. I remember thinking what a great book cover it would make and how if I were a writer, I would write a novel of the same name just so I could put this art on the cover.

It is available for purchase in many print formats at my website.

#BuyIntoArt