Element No. 5, oil on canvas, diptych, 80″ x 180″, 2012
Artist was born in 1959 in San Francisco and raised in rural Alaska. His first career was as a professional motorcycle racer. He continues to ride and remains an avid surfer. A decade ago Ortner began to confront his life long intoxication with the ocean. Influenced by the emotional complexity of great old master paintings, Ortner began to explore a particular kind of intensity realised through the layering of oil paint. Through this process Ortner holds both the muscular immediacy and the delicacy he experiences in the ocean.
Element No. 1, oil on canvas, diptych, 160″ x 118, 2013
The ocean mirrors the tempo of my body, the beating of my heart, the in and out of my breath. Waves like a metronome mark the present, each insisting: Now. In the ocean I am immersed in now. Yet in the ancient body of the sea I feel the root of time. In the pulsing surge I feel the wild place of my wilderness beginnings. There is no totem to the irrational more potent. Nothing points to the stirrings of my unconscious more than what lies below the surface. No peril feels more ominous. Yet the sea is where I bathe my wounds, where I get lost in all that is luxuriously infinite. Nothing is more symphonic, more effervescent, more delicately complete than the endless sea.
Element No. 2, oil on canvas, triptych, 72″ x 234″, 2013
Element No. 31, oil on canvas, triptych, 80″ x 316″, 2016
Element No. 3, oil on canvas, triptych, 72″ x 234″, 2011