![]() ![]() ![]() “Just by design, it inspires other people.” “You would think it would be going through my accident and losing my arm, and that’s how I felt at first, but it actually became a blessing,” he says. Photo by Wendy Rhodes Allen prides himself on following his dreams and not giving up, but admits he struggled for the inner peace he has today. “The butterflies, flowers - particularly the roses - are all the idea of that hidden gem and following your dreams,” he says. Putting a positive spin on everything seems to come naturally these days for Allen, and it shows in his art. “They need a medal for putting up with me,” he says, laughing. “She thinks that everybody paints, plays drums, sings, plays guitar, and dresses up in unicorn and fairy outfits.”Īllen is affable, light and positive, professing a deep love and admiration for his wife and two children. “That’s my youngest daughter,” Allen says of the images of nine-year-old Josie. “The handprint specifically relates to me because I have to rely on that for everything, so that’s become a thing really through necessity,” Allen says.Īnother recurring image is that of a young girl on a swing, soaring into and out of various paintings. Photo by Wendy Rhodes The current exhibition includes new additions like Janis Joplin and Tom Petty to his Legends portrait series, a new environmental series and classics like painted drums and statues.īold colors cut through common themes, like a handprint, which is prominent on numerous canvases. “I want to celebrate my uniqueness, and that’s really helped me.” “I don't want to compare myself to others,” he says. He creates art much like he drums - with one arm and an open heart. “Explosions of emotion,” is how he describes it.Īllen says he draws from the joy and pain of life to create very personal, one-of-a-kind mixed media pieces. Not simply surviving, but thriving, Allen has spent much of the past eight years pouring his heart into his artwork. In 2019, the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Allen continued drumming for Def Leppard with the help of an electronically-altered drum kit. “It just catapulted me into the next phase of my life, and I realized, I can do this,” he says.Īnd do it, he did. I was very self-conscious.”īut then, an awakening of sorts - a realization of the power of the human spirit, he says. “I didn’t really want to be here, I just kind of wanted to retreat,” he says of succumbing to depression immediately following the accident. “It stopped me from bleeding to death.”ĭoctors reattached Allen’s arm but then had to amputate it when it became infected. “The thing that kept me alive was the fact that I stayed conscious,” he says. ![]() “As I rolled this frigging car, I guess the seatbelt took my arm and I went through the sunroof,” he says of the crash that occurred while trying to pass an aggressive driver on a winding country road near his hometown of Sheffield, England. Photo by Wendy Rhodes But a car crash almost brought Allen's career - and his life - to an end in 1984. ![]()
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