Glenda Orr’s art primarily focuses on critically engaging with issues and concepts of biological diversity, human ecology and natural ecosystems, particularly forests and woodlands. Her love of the ‘bush’ stems from her childhood spent playing in the dry sclerophyll forests on the steep gorge banks of the Georges River in southern Sydney. This love of the natural world and curiosity as to how it worked, led to her careers as a research biologist and then, natural resource policy analyst. Glenda also spent much of her spare time in the later 1980s and 90s volunteering as an environmental activist, especially working with the Forest Campaign Group of the Australian Conservation Foundation on the South- East Forest campaign in NSW.
Throughout her life, Glenda has loved drawing, printmaking, fabricated sculpture and photography, taking part-time classes where possible. Finally in 2002, when she moved from Sydney to Brisbane, she was able to commit full time to being a practising artist. While completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours (First Class) degree, Glenda became a founding member of Impress Printmakers Studio & Gallery and its exhibitions coordinator. Since graduating, she has tutored in Art Theory at Queensland College of Art, represented Queensland on the Print Council of Australia and participated in many exhibitions, most recently, touring exhibitions raising the awareness of the threatened Bimblebox Nature Refuge in central Queensland.
