I grew up in a small university town in the Midwest and we lived two blocks from the Ball State University Art Gallery, which had a great collection. Before I could walk my mother would take me in her arms, and when I reached seven or eight years old I would go alone and look at my favorites: Irene Rice Periera, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. It was my first lesson in History (time), Form (visual), and Thought (abstract).
Born in Muncie, Indiana, Michael Famous began his art studies in 1962 at Ball State University in Muncie. In 1970, he attended Yale University Summer School of Music and Art on a fellowship, and went on to gain his BFA from the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1971. In 1985, he was awarded an Illinois Arts Council Special Projects Grant.