Sometimes irreverent, often humorous, and always speaking from experience and imagination, Michael Edward Andryc, is a prolific American artist and writer who works and lives in New Mexico.

 

Originally from Rhode Island, Andryc moved out West after graduating from RI Junior College with an Associate of Arts in English and a desire to become a writer or artist, or both. He received a literary grant from the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation, and subsequently had two pieces of literary fiction published in the prestigious North American Review. Soon thereafter, he turned to art to better support his nascent family as they lived in the mountains near Santa Fe.

 

Of Slavic heritage, Andryc, his parents and four grandparents all worked in New England factories as was customary of many Polish immigrants. His father became a businessman and owned a flower shop while his mother was a homemaker for their family of six children.

 

Although he recounts numerous unsavory experiences in elementary and high school, Andryc attributes his pursuit of writing to a creative writing teacher in high school who encouraged him. Virtually a self-taught artist, Andryc took one course in art at the junior college. His professor suggested he view some of the works of Marc Chagall. Andryc says he took one look at a Chagall and knew that was what he wanted to do.

 

During the summer of 2023, the Step Up Gallery in Los Alamos featured more than 60 acrylic paintings, illustrated manuscripts, and artifacts during “The Hour of the Wolf(Man): A Retrospective by Michael Andryc.” Andryc’s solo exhibition was the culmination of hundreds of presentations – from outdoor shows in Santa Fe for 20 years, to large in-door festivals, to national juried and local non-juried shows both in and out of state - to numerous appearances at the NM State Fair and the Albuquerque Museum.

 

He actively paints and writes in Albuquerque where he enjoys nature walks in the bosque along the Rio Grande and the petroglyph escarpment.