Michael Schliefke has been a resident of Austin, Texas for just over seven years.  Born in Schenectady, New York and raised in the Northeast, after high school he left home and graduated with a Bachelor's of Fine Art from the Kansas City Art Institute.  After school, he painted furiously, showing in various galleries in New England before moving to Cork, Ireland for one year.  Upon returning to America, he quit his job, visited Austin and never left.

While in Austin, he has shared studio spaces with a wide variety of talented artists at the ArtHive, Blue Genie Art, and Bolm Studios.  He's painted full time and shown regularly at various galleries and venues throughout Austin.  To help pay the bills, he's also taught painting and drawing classes from his own studio, as well as worked on a wide variety of odd art jobs, including murals, animation, commissions, and some TV art production as well.  His work can be seen during the annual East Austin Studio Tour.

While Michael's main focus has been his work on canvas, he's also curated and produced a variety of art shows in Austin.  After putting together a series of 'Shoulda Been a Plumber' painting exhibitions, he teamed up with fellow painter Ian Shults and the first show they put together was 'Will There Ever Be a Rainbow,' more commonly known as the Unicorn Art Show.
The following year they put on the 'Father's Day Art Show' at Bolm Studios, followed by the award winning, 'Radical Nautical' show at Gallery Lombardi in 2007.

In recent years, Michael took a much needed break from painting to focus on a new medium, the graphic novel.  Taking inspiration from the neighborhood in Austin that he's lived in since his arrival, 'The Tales of the Really White Vigilante' was born - a superhero farce focusing on the gentrification of East Austin and the ever changing and developing city of Austin.  The comic books detail the efforts of one young white kid who dons a lucha libre mask and tries to prevent the gentrification of East Austin.  The series is slated for four volumes, with the third book arriving in the October of 2009.
See more of Michael Schliefke's work here

PLUS: Learn more about The Tales of the Really White Vigilante here