A 1961 graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Wirsum was influenced both by the art of Picasso, the Surrealists, and Marcel Duchamp as well as the jazz and blues musicians he saw as an adolescent at the Maxwell Street Market. Wirsum incorporated his love of music into his art, using repetition, symmetry, and free association. Traveling in Mexico after graduating from SAIC, Wirsum found inspiration in contemporary Mexican ceramics, textiles, and folk art, as well as the ancient relics of the Aztec and Mayan cultures.
