Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Andrew Allen.
Hi Mark Andrew, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am a mid-career fine artist that has shown my fine art in over sixty galleries world-wide. I have collectors throughout the world.
I spent thirty years as a graphic designer working on high profile projects seen by over a billion people. I designed the logo for Yu-Gi-Oh, The Nightmare Before Christmas, the sixtieth anniversary logo for The Wizard Of Oz, redesigned the Coca-Cola bottle, The Bud Light bottle, worked for most of the movie studios and record companies and top 100 fortune companies.
In the last two years I started writing songs, and I have penned over 950 songs so far.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Just like any pursuit. I have had challenges… “don’t quit your day job”,… “You should stick with what you are good at”, so many comments that are less that encouraging have come throughout my journey. Many times from close friends of even family, but I have always belived in myself and I just put my head down and keep grinding. I suppose that is one of my greatest strengths. I work harder than anyone that I know. I will go way beyond what most do. I have seen it countless times when I present a job to a client when there are other competitors seeking the same project. Clients are always surprised by the depth of work I do.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
In all my creative endeavors, there is an underlying connection. It is storytelling. That’s what a good logo does. I often tell students, a good logo should communicate what the company does in any language. The consumer should be able to understand who the market is and connect with them in some way.
The same thing happened when I shifted to painting full-time. I was telling stories through my mixed-media work that connects with people. I don’t set out to do that. I just try to tell stories that are either funny, ironic, thought-provoking, or have some meaning. Rarely do I paint a pretty picture. They might end up being pretty, but the message is what interests me. Conceptual art is something that interests me the most. I love to play with common ideas and twist them aound in some new way…
That has led me to wanting to communcate on deeper level. I have found that songwriting has an even more powerful way of connecting and telling a story. The difference in performing a song verses producing art is there is an immediate reaction after a song. I have never gotten applause when completing a logo, or when a gallery sells a painting. Painting is very solitary. After so many years of being alone with my millions of thoughts, I find songwriting to be helpful in my art and my art helps me see things differently and to write songs about it. They feed into each other.
What were you like growing up?
I am just like my dad. He was an award-winning graphic designer. He specilaized in hand-lettering as did I. He was also a very good painter and left-handed as am I.
I knew from an early age that I was going to be an artist. I was making posters for my neighborhood buddies, I won some art contests in school. In college I won some more awards. It came down to me being super-focused on art from an early age. I studied the greats, not just the ‘local-yokals’, as my dad would say. I spent six years studying cubism and Picasso. I met Andy Warhol several times when I went to New York City to study at Parson’s School of Design.
Later I met Robert Rauschenberg, (I met him four times and wear a ring that his assistant gave me that has Bob’s ashes in it.) I have gone out of my way to meet as many fine artists as possble including getting on a plane to fly to Houston to meet Larry Rivers. I have met too many to list here, but each one has passed on a nugget of insight that has helped my on my own artistic journey
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.markandrewallen.com
- Instagram: @mallendesign2
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@markandrewallen/videos
Image Credits
FLEETWOOD MAC, DOM DIP, FOUR SURFBOARDS, RESET BUTTON, CASHEWS, DERAIL TRAIN OF THOUGHT, MEMORIES FLOW, CHANGE OF ADDRESS
Popular
-
What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
-
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
-
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
-
Life, Lessons, & Legacies
-
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
-
Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
