Michael Economos, an acclaimed and respected artist and instructor in both New York City and Maryland, died on Nov 30, 2021, after suffering just 3 days in the hospital from undetected cancer. He was someone who always let his creative journeys guide his life's direction. Michael Economos was born and raised on a small Greek island with his mother and brother, enduring the hardships of WW ll during childhood. When he came of age he travelled to the US, eventually studying at Yale University. While there, he earned both his BFA and MFA and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in printmaking, the beginning of a string of many more awards and grants in the arts including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation and Carnegie Mellon. His early teaching career included drawing and printmaking at New York Institute of Technology and Yale, while also leading classes in drawing and painting at MICA from 1964 – 2014, requiring a commute from NYC to Baltimore twice a week. During his studies at Yale he was also served in the US Navy Reserves for six years. His students remember him as an instructor who took their art education seriously, pushing them to excel at every level. From 2002-04 he partnered with his now-deceased wife Barbara to create "The Face of Courage", a project of 14 painted portraits of fallen first responders from the NYC 9/11 tragedy. This show was exhibited extensively throughout the US, and the couple later gifted these paintings to the families of the fallen. Michael retired from teaching at MICA and continued to paint and draw at his country homes in Vermont and Maryland.
