Arts Muralist Michael Fajans Dead
He died in a motorcycle accident yesterday, the P-I reports this morning. I don’t know his work, and I’d never met him, but I’ve heard artists speak fondly of him, especially those in the GSA building I wrote about last week. He had a studio there. His partner of 20 years, Cathryn Vandenbrink, led the effort to build the Tashiro-Kaplan building, which, with its artist lofts, low-cost housing, and gallery spaces has just about single-handedly revitalized the art scene in Pioneer Square. Fajans was only 58. Vandenbrink says there will be a party to celebrate his life.
His work is quite unusual -- I would call it cosmological realism. If you can brave the Feds, check out his mural in the lobby of the Federal Courthouse.