"My High School students would say they couldn't draw a straight line or a stick figure. So I thought, well let's just draw stick figures."
Artist, painter and Local Color Art Gallery affiliate Shirley Joan Allen, 78, has carved a unique lane for herself as a creative, a mother, and a life-long teacher. Born in Ponca City, Oklahoma but living most of her life in Chetopa, Kansas, Allen's love for learning is coupled by her passion for giving back to others. Graduating from The University of Alabama with a degree in Art Education, Allen's aspirations of becoming an educator had become a reality. "It was just a wonderful experience to go to that university. A place where there were a lot of artists and opportunities. A lot of galleries."
Allen's major covered K-12 and qualified her to teach junior college also. "My High School students would say they couldn't draw a straight line or a stick figure. So I thought, well let's just draw stick figures." She explained that, ultimately, this method didn't necessarily work out for her students. While teaching junior college courses some time later on in her career, Allen began to develop a signature style. A sort of niche. One summer break, between semesters, Allen drafted a series of roughly ten "twiglettes." She explained that during this particular summer her idea had begun to develop. This minimalist, you-can-to approach was starting to take shape into something wholly her own. Eventually, the idea bloomed into a more concrete style.
A twiglette is a type of caricature painting which captures a piece of a person's chosen identity. Whether the image focuses on an occupation (a nurse for example), a person's talent (pianist) or an entirely separate aspect of someone's life, Allen's paintings provide a celebratory kind of commemoration for the person of interest in any given piece.
"When I started, I was doing a profile...and it wasn't very pretty. So I decided that these women in action were going to be skinny and that they would all have the same face. Just different actions. And it turned out to be a total fantasy, but it took a couple of years for that to really soak in."
Although, her catalogue spans far beyond the cartoon-esque depictions of select people in her life. After all, Allen is a career educator with decades of experience under her belt. "I was an oil painter first," she explained. But these days Allen prefers fast drying watercolors and acrylics over heavy oils. This applies to her more abstract works as well. With twiglettes in focus, Allen's joyous and heartfelt artworks are a thing of appreciation and fantasy surrounding the people highlighted in each piece. Many of Allen's creative works provide a kind, sentimental image of devotion. This in turn characterizes those who inspire her and places a spotlight on what makes them interesting.
