Boy, did the Houston Arts Alliance ever get its money’s worth by giving William Betts an Individual Artist Grant Award. Houston audiences win too, being treated to a ravishing, astonishing body of paintings created with thousands of acrylic dots plotted onto large mirrored acrylic panels.

William Betts, Untitled 13, 2010. Acrylic paint on reverse drilled mirrored acrylic panel. Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery

Once you recover from marveling at their beauty -- which reproductions don't begin to capture -- give some thought to the fact that the imagery comes from photos Betts shot in Orange County, Calif., construction sites during a 1980s housing boom that went bust. Our current national foreclosure nightmare made Betts realize now was finally the time to do something with those images.

Because of the photos’ vantage points, we’re positioned inside the unfinished sites looking out. But because the paintings are on mirrors, our gaze is also returned uncomfortably to ourselves.

What’s wrong with these perfectly executed pictures? Us.

William Betts: New Mirror Paintings continues through Dec. 2 at Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery.