Michael Fajans, 58; Successful Painter Started as a Dancer
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Michael Fajans, 58, a dancer turned painter whose meticulously realistic works are featured in Seattle’s federal courthouse and other public buildings in the Pacific Northwest, died June 12 in a motorcycle accident in Seattle.
He was known for “Three Sets of Twelve,” a three-story mural celebrating the jury system.
One of his largest works outside the courthouse is “High Wire,” completed in 1993, a 180-foot mural at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport that shows Fajans as a magician who makes a person disappear.
A native of Philadelphia, Fajans grew up in New York, where he was a dancer before a knee injury caused him to switch to painting.