Transcript
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This is the VR workforce studio inspiration, education, and affirmation at work the workforce and disability employment podcast from the Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation Center, a division of the Virginia Department of Aging and Rehabilitation services. The VR Workforce Studio is published by our foundation at www.rcf.org and is available in iTunes and at vrworkforcestudio.com
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Bruce (Snippet): “…individuals with disabilities want to be productive no matter what it is and so… you know they want to feel like they’re empowered by going out and doing a good job to, you know they want to be productive in life and if given the opportunity and you do hire a person with a disability I think you’re gaining a valuable employee or gaining a contributing member to society…”
VR Workforce Studio jingle
Music introduction
Rick: On today’s episode of the VR Workforce Studio; Drawing without Hands the Amazing Story of Bruce Delliger. I’m Rick Sizemore director of the Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation Center.
Anne: And I’m Anne Hudlow director of the WWRC Foundation, and together we’re opening up the VR Workforce Studio, so individuals with disabilities with disabilities can share their courageous stories of Vocational Rehabilitation. Along the way we also talk to the champions of business and industry that hire individuals with disabilities
Rick: On today’s show a successful business man and critically acclaimed artist, known for his intricate and unbelievably realistic pencil drawings of nature. His work can found in homes and galleries all around the world, but what’s even more amazing is the clever highly unusual and ingenious techniques Bruce Delliger uses to create these masterpieces without using his hands.
Anne: We’ll also talk with Self-Employment Enterprise Specialist Larry Roberts from the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, and his reflections on what it takes to make it in business being self-employed as an individual with a disability
Rick: Bruce Delliger is an artist with a spinal cord injury and only has limited use of his hands. You simply won’t believe which body parts he uses to hold the pencil and draw on the pallet!
Anne: Bruce received the Art to Art Pallet Award in Ohio and has won two best In-Print Awards from the Printing Industry of Virginia among many others; he has also been featured in numerous magazines, newspapers, and television programs for his amazing talent. Rick there’s a quote from the Art to Art Pallet that says that “Bruce has never used his unusual method of painting as a sensation, but has let his work stand on its own merit; the refusal to be weak and unyielding in his passion of natural beauty is finally paying off”.
Rick: Bruce Delliger Welcome to the Podcast, let’s get started with your story of disability.
Bruce: Basically an old farm boy; country boy. I grew up in the country and worked on the farm pretty much all of my life and I was getting ready to leave middle school and start my freshman year at Broadway high school. I was an upcoming football player at that particular time. So I was doing some weight training, but I also had failed my 8th grade English course so I was taking summer school and It was during the break of our summer school, July and it was over the break and my father asked me if I wanted to go with him to assist a friend of ours bale hay down in Orkney Springs, Virginia and so I can remember that day it’s like you know (what) psychologists call it a flashbulb memory and I’d gone with my father. I remember riding through the mountains with him and we finally got down to the property where we were going to help bale hay and of course you know middle of summer time, dealing with hay you get it everywhere you know. So we worked a few hours. My first cousin and I; our job was to stay on th...