George Altshuler

James Hampton worked for decades as a janitor for the General Services Administration. With savings form his job, he rented a garage in Northwest Washington, where he quietly and privately built a masterpiece.

I stumbled upon his set of sculptures, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, during a visit to the National Portrait Gallery.

“We may doubt everything,” Heschel wrote, “except the fact that we are struck with amazement.”