David Carroll Orr

Artist • Writer • Architect • Publisher
Jump to Section: Milestones Initiatives Debut Novel Exhibitions
Section 01 • Current Milestones • 2026–2027

Selected Dispatches & Honors

Cover of Love’s Sole Ash: Earth’s First Alphabet
Upcoming Event • Advance Preview

Preview Reading: Love’s Sole Ash: Earth’s First Alphabet

In the Trenches 2026 Writers Conference, Evanston, IL • November 15, 2026

Advance preview reading from a forthcoming artist monograph pairing original lyric poetry with Bryce Canyon landscape photography. Explores the tactile tension between book design, verse cadence, and deep geologic time ahead of the volume’s December publication via Riparia.US.

By-Lined Column

"Gen Z Can’t Escape AI. It Has to Learn How to Master It."

Newsweek, October 6, 2026

First installment of an invited opinion series on technology and cultural systems. Examines the collision of generative AI, Gen Z economic fatalism, and the vanishing corporate apprenticeship, calling for active technical mastery over administrative and generative tools.

American Playwriting Foundation logo
Sept. 23, 2026

Honorable Mention — 2026 Relentless Award

Selected by the American Playwriting Foundation as an Honorable Mention among 2,200 submissions for the 2026 Relentless Award, recognizing the full-length stage play A Tornado, a Turnip, and a Minotaur Walk into a Bar (adapted from the hybrid memoir of the same name).

Chicago Dramatists logo
Sept. 5, 2026 • 2:00 PM

The Abated Record (10-Minute Play)

A juried selection for the Chicago Dramatists Network PlayFest, this short historical drama dramatizes the final hour before a frontier jailhouse murder in 1830s Arkansas Territory. Directed by Adrianne Cury at the Russ Tutterow Theater, Chicago, IL.

Illinois Arts Council logo
August 11, 2026

Awarded FY27 Creative Project Grant

Following an FY26 Creative Accelerator Grant ($10,000), this back-to-back IAC support fuels an interdisciplinary project spanning visual art, artist’s books, and dramatic scripts through a cross-fertilizing experimental process.

Upcoming, May 2027:
Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence, Chateau d’Orquevaux, Orquevaux, France.
(Denis Diderot Grant Recipient)

Section 02 • Works in Progress • Research

Proofs of Concept, 2026-2027 Initiatives

HD Acrylic Back-Lit Processes

This exploration activates HD acrylic on metallic prints as a nascent medium—a technical framework deployed to capture and interpret the spatial essence of anticipation.

Love letter and portrait photography exchanged during World War II
World War II Love Letter Archive
Transcription & Interpretation
Sheep seeking shelter under a tree during a storm
Lightning Security
Digitized acrylic wash on backlit HD metallic print
Section 03 • Literary Works • Hybrid Fiction

Debut Novel: A Tornado, a Turnip, and a Minotaur Walk into a Bar

Cover of the experimental novel A Tornado, a Turnip, and a Minotaur Walk into a Bar.
Cover • 420-page hybrid novel published by Riparia.US (2025)

An experimental narrative that detonates the Jim Crow South with a blast of Greek mythology and pop culture celebration.

When 11-year-old David boards a segregated bus in 1963, he makes a brilliant new friend—Theseus. Their Mythic Pop Culture Quest to understand fear quickly spirals into a cosmic misadventure driven by a depressed Apollo (disguised as a bus driver). From wrestling a minotaur for a punchline, to performing with '60s celebrities on a celestial prune, the boys race to uncover secrets about David's mother, her affair with novelist James Agee, and the racist horrors hidden in the labyrinth of memory.

A fearless, funny, and profound magical realist epic with 25 chapters, 10 graphics, and 33 poems.

Accolades → Even the mythical gods have their say.
Interior spread showing layout, typographic, and image interplay
Interior layout: Typographic and image interplay across the 11-inch landscape canvas
Audio • Spoken Word Recordings

Poetry readings from this volume:

AND NOW, fade away (2:16) • We did not joke about the sun (2:02) • The lack of a fundamental (4:04)

Critical Inquiries • Academic Archive

MFA Thesis on the structural theories and "handrail strategy" exhibited in this book:

Tornado Turnip Minotaur • School of the Art Institute of Chicago, John M. Flaxman Library, April 2025. (View Abstract & Feedback)

Sample chapters, complete interior spreads, physical edition specifications, and acquisition details are archived at the imprint:

Explore Edition at Riparia.US →
Section 04 • Curated & Juried Work

Recent Exhibitions

Irene Rosenzweig Juried Biennial

Art and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 701 S. Main St., Pine Bluff, AR • September 18, 2025 – January 24, 2026.
Eepi Chaad, Juror.

Open Call: All Media 2025

Juried group exhibition, Studio Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA • August 2 – September 13, 2025.
Taylor Bythewood-Porter, Peter Carlson, and Michael Todd, Jurors.

MFA Thesis Exhibition

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, SAIC Galleries, 33 E. Washington St., Chicago, IL • July 7–27, 2025.

Installation photograph of artwork displayed at the SAIC 2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition.
Installation view • SAIC Galleries, Chicago (Photograph by John Saenz, Life Signs | Photography)
Online Exhibition Catalog →
Honorable Mention Award of Special Merit

The Next Big Thing 23

Juried group exhibition, Studio Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA • August 5 – September 30, 2023.
Shana Nys Dambrot, Art Critic, Los Angeles Times, Juror.

Close-up view of David Orr's digital media artwork, 'Leo Tolstoy's Pants'.
Leo Tolstoy's Pants, digital media, 30" × 48"
Official exhibition photograph of artworks displayed at The Next Big Thing 23.
Gallery view • Photo by W. Scott Miles
Online Exhibition Catalog →

The Next Big Thing 22

Juried group exhibition, Studio Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA • August 6 – September 24, 2022.
David Pagel, Art Critic, Los Angeles Times, Juror.

Online Exhibition Catalog →

Illustrated Arkansas: The Art of Comics

Juried group exhibition, CALS Roberts Library, Library Square, 401 President Clinton Ave, Little Rock, AR • October 14, 2022 – January 28, 2023.
Dr. Randy Duncan, Juror.

Artist / Writer Statement

My work, as both an author and artist, begins with an act of creative collision. I bring together disparate elements—text and image, comedy and trauma, the personal and the systemic—to see what new meanings emerge. This process allows me to explore a wide range of subjects.

Sometimes, I apply this lens to the complexities of the human condition, exploring fear and identity. Drawing on my childhood in the Jim Crow South, I use tools from the Theater of the Absurd and Southern tall tales to deconstruct social narratives in my novel-length works.

At other times, my focus shifts to the slow, vast narratives of the physical world, contemplating geology and entropy. These explorations often take the form of art books, where the starkness of a photograph is cross-activated by the lyricism of poetry. The movement of a single grain of sand—or the theft of a horse from a U.S. President’s barn—can become the anchor for an entire project.

While my subjects may range from the intimate to the immense, my ultimate goal is consistent: to disrupt rigid ways of thinking about identity, fear, and social justice, and to foster a more peaceful understanding of our multifaceted world.

Accolades for A Tornado, a Turnip, and a Minotaur Walk into a Bar

A tapestry of beguiling complexity, weaving the familiar into something breathtakingly new. The threads of language ignite passion, revealing raw power and meaning in a singular, potent way. This challenges and touches hidden spaces, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, making you believe the impossible. A truly beautiful and passionate experience, destined to be shared.
—Signed with the love that will now see light, Aphrodite.

The deeper you delve, the greater the rewards. Beautifully crafted, this story touches your heart, revealing hidden truths. It's a journey beyond crude ideas, where human limitations meet boundless potential. Chaos, darkness, and beauty blend, offering a poignant and authentic experience. The responsibility, and transformation, now lies with you.
—With a nod and wink at how easy it was to impersonate James Agee, with an ever watchful heart, I remain yours truly, Apollo.

'Challenges hidden spaces', 'touches your heart'... It did make me think. Primarily about whether defrosting a woolly mammoth takes longer before or after you've fully contemplated the inevitable heat death of the universe. Seems like one eternal problem should inform the other, you know? But frankly, neither feels particularly solvable right now. Guess it's all just... background noise to the pouring, eh? More wine?
—Dionysus, idly swirling his cup and contemplating freezer logistics.

Poetry reading from A Tornado, a Turnip, and a Minotaur Walk into a Bar

Poetry reading from A Tornado, a Turnip, and a Minotaur Walk into a Bar

Poetry reading from A Tornado, a Turnip, and a Minotaur Walk into a Bar

Tornado Turnip Minotaur

MFA Thesis Abstract
School of the Art Institute of Chicago

This critical inquiry argues for the efficacy of a “handrail” strategy in navigating experimental fiction, using the author’s hybrid fiction... as a primary case study. This 105,000-word narrative, entitled "A Tornado, a Turnip, and a Minotaur Walk into a Bar: An American Memoir" and completed in April 2025, responds to a challenge faced by many contemporary writers: how to innovate storytelling without sacrificing engagement by readers accustomed to traditional forms. Authors want to keep their readers reading—even while navigating content that some may be perceived as odd, absurd, or disconcerting. To keep a reader’s experience balanced, even in the face of heavily fragmented text passages, the creative development of A Tornado… built a “handrail” with familiar elements. This narrative has clear story arcs with rising action, climax, and resolution, as well as compelling characters with strengths, weaknesses, and intent to attain goals in the face of obstacles. These aspects, however, offer much more than reliance on familiarity; they actively reframe the experimental passages, guiding thematic interpretation. The “handrail” in A Tornado… aligns with thoughts and best practices of scholars and authors working with threads of post-structuralism, reader response theory, literary allusions, recurring motifs, and black studies. Functionally, this type of “handrail strategy” has the capacity to guide readers, whether novice or sophisticated, as they make their way through experimental passages and unlock meaningful statements about fear, social injustice, and identity.

Thesis adviser's feedback

Text of MFA Thesis feedback

David Carroll Orr's YouTube Channel

Call Me Ishmael, (6:53)

Reflections on both an artist/writer's practice and parentage, influenced by Herman Melville's "Moby Dick."

Neon Poetry Readings

From A Tornado, a Turnip, and a Minotaur Walk into a Bar

AND NOW, fade away (2:16)
We did not joke about the sun (2:02)
The lack of a fundamental (4:04)

Press & Public Writing

Land Art with wooden stick assembly suggesting the shape of a Serpent
Riparian Stick Serpent, Right Cranial
Riparia, USA, land art installation, February 2020
Praxis Photographic Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 2020, Group Exhibition
Walton Art Center, Fayetteville, Arkansas, May 2020, Group Exhibition
Boat on the river at the edge of the Azay-le-Rideau Chateau in France
Château d'Azay-le-Rideau, Indre-et-Loire, France
Big Bend National Park, Texas, February 2020
Photograph taken at the brink of Victoria Falls, Zambia
Zambesi River, Zambia, at the brink of Victoria Falls, 2006
Licensed to State Ballet of Berlin, Germany
Photograph taken at the Devile's Throat section of Iguazu Falls, Argentina-Brazil border
Devil's Throat, Iguazu Falls, Brazil/Argentina, 2008