Artwork: "Communication". Artist: SGT Patrick Farrell, Catalog Number: 9.20.88

Farrell was born March 14, 1940, in Hardwood, Mich., the youngest of four children. The family later moved to Cudahy. Raised in a trailer park, and troubled by problems at home, Farrell stopped going to school at age 14 and never went beyond the eighth grade in school. Farrell worked as a busboy and an errand boy for a record distribution firm and got his own apartment at 17. Then — without ever taking an art class — he started painting landscapes and still lifes to cover the walls. After stumbling upon an art show at a shopping center and realizing his work was comparable, Farrell decided to display some of his paintings and woodcuts in an art fair at Capitol Court. Soon he was making a living selling his creations to collectors around the country, gaining critical recognition and evolving as an artist.