George Ortman is an artist who lives in the building where Johnny works. His work is remarkable, his constructions much more so than his drawings, in my opinion. In this show he had a large work with items like cigarettes in sand, an egg, and broken glass, about Beckett's "birth, death, and legacy," which caught the writer's mystery and pungent humor, and a piece about Detroit (where Ortman taught for 20+ years) that hit you with the life/decay/life of that city. The caption to the invitation links to a long interview in a publication called geoform, where you can see a wide sample of his art of six decades. "I have always been interested in what makes art. How is it that space, form and color painted on a flat surface can create a kind of magic?"
Update: I'm sorry to report that George died on December 14, 2015.
Update: I'm sorry to report that George died on December 14, 2015.