Allen's profile
I started making art after the deaths of my parents and a subsequent visit to Baltimore's Visionary Art Museum with my son, Joe, in 1992. At AVAM, we saw a wooden bench made in the shape of a crocodile. Joe said, "Dad, you could do make something like that." I thought to my self, yes, I could. Ah, inspiration aligned with belief. My first wooden artwork was a bird bench about 6 feet long and 3 feet wide, carved from an 90-year old Oak Tree, that I made for Joe.
Since those days, I have combined family folkways (the ancestral Hicks home is at Hicks Mountain in Stokes County, North Carolina), dreams and visions to create gourd birdhouses and fanciful creatures; modern sculpture from gourds, wood and vines; "witch sticks" from specially chosen vine wraped trees; totems from found wood to 100-year old wood cut from family forest and from trees gorwn in our Hampden backyard; meditative tiles kilned in Maryland; artwork painted inside houses; busts made from bronze and cement and clay.
My wooden sculptures are carved after "seeing the wood", a process of observing the properties of the wood combined with what I feel at the moment. The images and visions come and go.
I don't knw why losing my parents would make me so reflective of my particular art, but it did and still does. My son's belief that I could make art pushed me to try. There is a story and a vision behind each piece, but it is not complete witou you, the viewer.
The art establishment tells me that I am an untrained artist; others say I am an Outsider Artist/Found Objects Artist. I say...I am what I am and still trying to become more of an artist. I have to do art. For I believe in the power of art to transform lives. Perhaps more important, I also believe that art is capable of engaging and enriching the spirit. I've been making art from the mind since 1992.
Since those days, I have combined family folkways (the ancestral Hicks home is at Hicks Mountain in Stokes County, North Carolina), dreams and visions to create gourd birdhouses and fanciful creatures; modern sculpture from gourds, wood and vines; "witch sticks" from specially chosen vine wraped trees; totems from found wood to 100-year old wood cut from family forest and from trees gorwn in our Hampden backyard; meditative tiles kilned in Maryland; artwork painted inside houses; busts made from bronze and cement and clay.
My wooden sculptures are carved after "seeing the wood", a process of observing the properties of the wood combined with what I feel at the moment. The images and visions come and go.
I don't knw why losing my parents would make me so reflective of my particular art, but it did and still does. My son's belief that I could make art pushed me to try. There is a story and a vision behind each piece, but it is not complete witou you, the viewer.
The art establishment tells me that I am an untrained artist; others say I am an Outsider Artist/Found Objects Artist. I say...I am what I am and still trying to become more of an artist. I have to do art. For I believe in the power of art to transform lives. Perhaps more important, I also believe that art is capable of engaging and enriching the spirit. I've been making art from the mind since 1992.
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