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Biography
Leslie B. Allen

1964-

Born in Boston, glass artist Leslie (Brennan) Allen was raised on the mean streets of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Allen suffered a difficult childhood, rife with such trials as entire days spent at the beach, and meager lunches consisting of nothing but Fluffernutters and chicken noodle soup.

These hardships caused Allen to retreat inward and create a world of fantasy and wonder (where she still lives today). Escape for Leslie meant hours upon hours of drawing, and making dolls out of tinfoil and sticks.

By age nine Allen was painting with oils (until her sister and a friend coated themselves in alizarin crimson and proceeded to roll around on the carpet, causing the paints to be confiscated) and capturing her world on canvas. “Sun Beflect off Warter” remains one of her proudest achievements.

At age eleven, Leslie was running an art school out of her parent’s basement. For 50 cents a week, neighborhood kids could come and glue things together under Allen’s strict tutelage. Allen continued this work for three weeks.

Leslie’s favorite Beatle is John.

Some other things happened, and then in 1982 Allen found herself studying commercial art at Butera, a small, private school in Boston. After finally agreeing with her instructors that no one was ever going to buy deodorant or toothpaste that came packaged in bright purple and orange containers with swirls all over them, Allen packed up her T-square and moved on.

Years of fair to middling art followed (which people still occasionally display when they know Allen is coming to visit), and then in late 1990, Leslie and her husband (and drummer) Chuck Allen moved to Seattle, Washington, a Mecca for glass artists and drummers.

Her late Great-Grandmother, glass artist Dorothy Orchard Butler, persuaded her (from 3000 miles away) to take up the medium. Dorothy O. Butler owned the Sea Garden Studio in Medomak, ME for over 30 years, until her death at age 92 in 1996. Grrr. Dot, as she was called, had always been a source of inspiration and awe for Leslie. Dorothy embodied grace, intelligence and talent (and an almost disturbing devotion to the color purple). She fostered Leslie’s artistic leanings from a very young age.

Anyhoo, Leslie took up stained glass as Grrr. Dot’s “continuum” (Dot’s words). In 1991 she opened a shop called The Glass Orchard in West Seattle. By 1992 she was showing and selling at fairs, galleries and markets all over the Pacific Northwest. In 1994 one of her glass bowls was scouted at a gallery and borrowed for use as a prop in the movie Mad Love which starred Drew Barrymore.

By 1997 Allen’s work was in galleries in California, Texas and New Orleans, as well as the Pacific Northwest. She had orders coming in from all over the country, and her work was displayed in homes all over the world. So she quit, and moved home.

Leslie and Chuck left Seattle and returned to Plymouth in the Spring of 1997. For a few years Leslie concentrated on larger, sculptural pieces. She won many awards from local guilds, and had her work shown in several museums.

In the early part of Y2K she had taken a sabbatical from her artwork to concentrate on her work as a Colonial Interpreter for Plimoth Plantation where she worked from 1997-2005. There she lived, breathed and taught 17th century history. She was also able to use her talents (mostly behinds the scenes) to build clay ovens, and dabble in blacksmithing. She spent nine weeks in Machias, ME as part of a core crew of builders responsible for the timber-framed dwelling used in the PBS series Colonial House.

Allen recently returned to art full time. She will be creating the awards for the First Annual Plymouth Independent Film Festival. She intends to be taking on commission work, teaching classes and exhibiting her work by Fall of 2005.

Leslie lives in Plymouth with her husband, their dog Ralph, and cat Wolfie, in the “yellowest house in the world”

Leslie’s favorite color is orange.