SPECTRUM FANTASTIC ART LIVE!

 or My First Convention

me and Donato Giancola
everyone's best friend

Sometimes I like to view myself as a vagabond, traveling from place to place and experience to experience, returning to my dusty studio to recollect through paint before setting out again on another great adventure, whether it's through road or brush. I've traveled through Italy, Washington D.C., New York, and New Orleans just to name a few- but nothing has been more fulfilling or more exhausting than traveling to Spectrum in Kansas City!

As the last four years passed I looked on from my computer screen as the first Spectrum's happened- seeing what seemed like old friends by now coming together for a family reunion that I never quite made it to. We stand on the shoulders of giants and in my eyes these were Goliaths and wasn't ready to stand in the puddles they left behind. It was a driving force for me every year to become better than I was. To me, just being able to see their shadows and, god forbid, shake their hands would be a blessing! So finally, this year, I made a decision, packed my bags, reminded myself in the mirror that I was, indeed, not a 5-year-old, and rode to Kansas City (with my friend Eric Summers who was kind enough to drive! Thanks Eric!)

me and Tyler Jacobson

I have no idea what I was expecting. Maybe there would be a lot of clouds and cities of gold. Maybe Gandalf would attend. Definitely Donato would be there slinging spells. What I got was far and beyond. Not only did I shake their hands but I spoke to them and they even spoke back to me! What were nerves at first soon turned into a calm and warm exhilaration. I made friend after friend, exchanged card after card, and drank drink after drink surrounded by the world's largest family. It felt like coming home and I would like to say here that I have never been so genuinely humbled and welcomed in my entire life.

 I tossed a lot of my own work around while I was there, and got the feedback everyone hopes for. I was told not just the changes I needed to make in my own work but the practice I needed to implement. I am inspired that I never need to stop learning and honing my craft, pursuing it to a degree of understanding that makes it a tool for answering my questions. I've always said that I like to use my art to explore other worlds, and to be frank it's like I've been walking these roads half blind with converse and then someone's handed me hiking boots and some binoculars. I will try not to forget them.

me and Captain Morgan/ Greg Manchess
(he painted and posed for the logo)

There was an awards ceremony, where all the winders of the gold and silver medals were announced, and I remember thinking to myself, "I never thought I'd be sitting in on a REAL awards show!" It was something else entirely, akin to the academy awards or the globes. In every artist that won, and in every artist that spoke, I could see not only how far they'd come and their own humility, but a small bit of myself too. That feeling was all around this past weekend. I speak of family but it was a sense of creative humanity- that we were all there for the same purpose and that we were all walking the same path. I could see myself as a child picking up books just for the cover, or stepping into art school for the first time, and I can see myself in another dream standing on a stage at Spectrum one day not as a winner in a competition, but because that huge family wants me there. I shed way too many tears.

So thank you all for taking the time to talk to me, and thank you for taking the time to support me and what I do. Thank you more for inspiring me and taking the time to do what you do. Thank you for following your own dreams and showing me how to follow mine. This weekend I met more giants than I thought I would, and I walked with them. I will never be able to repay that.

-Allen

 

me and Alex Stone

me and Justin Gerard
the world's friendliest man

me and Andrew Cefalu

me and Paul Bonner
the only man to study real dwarves

all my new friends, in card form