Bruce Orr: Handshadow Pixie Parade

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This mural shows a young artist holding her hand up to make a shadow that transforms into a dragon. Behind her is a parade of creatures flying towards a blue and green planet. Bruce strives to inspire others with this narrative. Especially in times of great oppression, creative people still find ways to create. That perseverance is/was/and always will be inherently healthy for our country.

Bruce writes “When I was a little kid I made puppet shows behind our couch. I made a series of books called “The Wacky Monster Dictionary” in which each letter of the alphabet had four creatures I invented. I made wooden boats and set up shop in front of my house in Delaware City. It never mattered to me that business was not booming in my little town next to an oil refinery. What mattered is that I was doing it,doing it myself and sharing it with the world. In my lifetime I created a puppet company out of trash, self published comics that I printed at kinko’s and painted lots of murals in places that I felt were special, like SCRAP (the School and Community Reuse Action Project) in Portland, Oregon. My favorite things are monsters, robots, bugs and spaceships. I’m an illustrator, painter, puppeteer, muralist, cartoonist, educator and Art Therapist. Since getting my master’s degree in 1996, the only guy in my class, I have worked exclusively in the arts, because it’s what I love. For a lot of us, art stirs the soul. It has never been enough for me to just make art alone. I have always worked in the public, from psychiatric institutions to farmer’s markets. The recurrent themes of all of my artwork are environmental stewardship, being a weirdo and holding on to the magical energy of the boy who turned his attic into a spaceship.”

Bruce Orr is an Art Therapist at RAW Art Works