Folk Artist. Henry Darger was a Chicago artist best known for the illustrations to his 15,000-page novel, “The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.” Raised in a brutal orphanage, he spent most of his adult life working as a janitor in Chicago hospitals, returning to his one room apartment in Lincoln Park each night to write and work on his paintings, which incorporate elements of collage and tracings from illustrations in popular magazines. His work was discovered only after his death, when his landlord, photographer Nathan Lerner, rescued it and began promoting it in Chicago art circles. His obsession with little girls and violence make his work difficult for some people to appreciate, but his work is unforgettable, and often stunningly beautiful. (bio by: Lori Robbins)