CAPTION: JUNCTION ART FESTIVAL TORONTO - DIGITAL DUO PHOTO BY PAT FLEISHER

Letter from Pat's niece Deborah Gilbert dated July 29th, 2009.

My Dear Friends, 

With great sadness I would like to let you know that my Auntie Pat passed away quietly this morning after a brave battle with leukemia.

My Aunt was an artist in the truest sense of the word.

She lived and breathed ART.

With her help she launched and promoted the careers of many young unknown artists through the “Toronto Indoor Art Show” which she held each year for the very purpose of helping young artists gain exposure.

At one of these shows a young man was exhibiting his art and playing music.

His name was Alan…and you all know the rest of the story.

We celebrate our 15^th year together September 28^th thanks to my Aunt Pat.

Pat never said a bad word about anyone….she would say …”Oh that person was not very nice to me”…but never “That person is not nice”.

She didn’t have a mean bone in her body and had the energy of several teenagers put together.

Call Pat and there was always some adventure that she had lined up that you would be welcome to join her for.

My Aunt Pat taught me through her Art and Photographs how to SEE the city in a new light.

When I walk in downtown Toronto I see beauty in the reflections in windows and the extraordinary in the ordinary.

There were literally hundreds of photographs full of fun and charm to be taken on every city street of Toronto and on the many streets she visited in other exciting cities.

Most of this work none of you have ever seen but it is all wonderful and often whimsical and has greatly increased my enjoyment of cities which you might think impossible for a “wilderness girl”.

Pat was a gifted artist, writer, and photographer.

She edited four Toronto Art Magazines, judged art, and evaluated art and was always ready to fly to just about anywhere to see a special Art Exhibit.

The two of us traveled one year to the Chicago Art Fair…a huge indoor Art Show.

We had a fabulous time, stopping by waterside café’s on the drive there and meeting a wonderful group of talented artists and magazine editors who couldn’t say enough good things about Pat’s wonderful Toronto based Art magazine.

We had dinners out with Artists and I lived and breathed in the World my Aunt lived in for a few days.

Most of you do not know the side of my Aunt that I did.

She was to me a wonderful, bright, kind, extremely talented friend and I will miss her always.

Love to you All,

Deborah