“Psalms for an Irish Girl” by Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick. (Provided)

When Sinéad O’Connor died last year at 56, artist Tony Fitzpatrick made a striking piece of artwork in her honor. He named it “Psalms for an Irish Girl” — even though she reminds him of a French martyr.

“I think of her as rock ’n’ roll’s Joan of Arc,” the Chicago artist told WTTW News. “She didn’t back up a step. I admire her beyond words.”

Two things about Fitzpatrick: He loves birds, and he works fast.

“It took about a week,” Fitzpatrick said. “She used to cover the song ‘Long Black Veil,’ and I just thought of a black swan sailing away. For me swans have always been an emblem of melancholy and the end of the journey, and I wanted this idea of her entering the next world with dignity and her head held high and a swarm of black and white moths taking her to whatever’s next.”

He subtitled it “Sinéad Entering the Next World.”

Speaking from his gallery — The Dime & T.F. Projects — the Irish American artist spoke of the Dublin-born singer in the context of the Feast of Saint Patrick.

“When we think of Saint Patrick’s Day, this music is what we should celebrate and not stupid sh-- like green beer,” Fitzpatrick said. “She’s somebody that we, the American Irish, can honestly and scrupulously claim for our own. I’m so proud of being Irish when I think of her, her music, her principles, what she stood for and what it cost her.”

Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick. (WTTW News)

Fitzpatrick is also an actor, and his first film role was in “Married to the Mob” (1988). O’Connor contributed a song to the film’s soundtrack (“Jump in the River”), but Fitzpatrick never met the singer.

He did have a close encounter with O’Connor after her first concert in Chicago, at Metro in April 1986.

“I worked late at my studio and got there for the end of the show, and she was just ferocious and fierce and great,” Fitzpatrick said. “Later I went down to Smartbar, and I noticed this woman dancing around the dance floor and realized it was her. She was decidedly not dancing with anyone in particular, and, I think, was just celebrating herself and her show. It was kind of a public sighting of a private moment, you know?”

Fitzpatrick hasn’t decided if he wants to sell or keep the artwork, which is constructed of mixed media.

“It’s mostly drawing and a bunch of paper ephemera cut out and collaged,” Fitzpatrick said. “So it’s a combination of painting, drawing, collage and poetry. That’s kind of my jam.”

Posters of “Psalms for an Irish Girl” will be available at Volumes and other local bookstores for Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, April 27.

“She’s just an absolute icon and an icon from the culture I come from,” Fitzpatrick said. “Mostly I adore her for being a principled artist. She’s a good example to follow. If you need to be like somebody, be like her.”

Left: “Psalms for an Irish Girl” by Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick. (Provided); Right: Sinéad O’Connor in 1987. (Courtesy of Chrysalis Records)