Press Release

Press contact:  John Hartt
703-409-2334
john@jortt.com
Online Exhibit: https://something-wonderful.com/

SOMETHING WONDERFUL IS COMING TO MANASSAS

An outdoor exhibit celebrating community and creativity

John Hartt (aka Jortt) is set to unveil Something Wonderful a larger than life outdoor installation of strange and wonderful creatures. Something Wonderful will be on display at the Harris Pavilion in Historic Downtown Manassas from 17 June through Labor Day. An artists reception will be held at the pavilion on Friday, 4 August from 7:00-11:00 pm.

For the installation of Something Wonderful, Jortt created 15 wonderful and out of this world creatures.  Each of these paintings is an 8 foot tall character with a different personality and a different story. These characters, whether alien, robot tiki man, or something else, are designed to celebrate the diversity of our community and spark conversation. They are ideal to take selfies with.

The concept for this project came to Jortt when a friend showed up at his studio with an 8’x 4’ sheet of plywood and said “paint a bigfoot on this for me”. While painting bigfoot, the idea of painting a “horde of “creatures” came to him and quickly became Something Wonderful.

Why is this important?

 Jortt’s vision for the exhibition is to spark curiosity and inspire the community to believe that they too can create something wonderful no matter how great, how big or how impossible it may seem Jortt wants to share this vision with a large audience. Living in the area for over thirty years, Jortt has seen the downtown Manassas area grow from a sleepy old town to a vibrant center of the community. He chose the Harris Pavilion because it is the cultural center of Manassas, a growing arts destination which Jortt is proud to be a part of.

Each piece in the exhibit has a QR code that directs visitors to an online exhibit where they can share their interpretation of the art. As an artist, Jortt loves to hear people’s stories. Often he finds people’s interpretations of his art more creative than his original concept. The online show can be found at https://something-wonderful.com/.

About Jortt

Jortt is an artist with a simple goal: he wants his art to make people smile. His oddball style can be described as a mix of pop surrealism and cartoonism painted with hyper-intense colors and humorous undertones. He can be found painting at his studio in Manassas and around the DMV area painting murals.