Bioforms: Art down to a Science

“What compels me to continue to work on creating wonderful things…It is as regular a part of my wellbeing as food, sleep, love, and exercise. It’s a continuous urge that needs to be fed regularly. Without it, I am incomplete.” 

Kelly Allen has a BA in Painting from Humboldt State University, in Arcata, California, an MFA in Drawing from Kendall College of Art and Design, and a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy from Western Michigan University. 

Her influences are many. Kelly is strongly inspired by and enamored with Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, and Joan Mitchell. Her works live within and reflect the movements of Dadaism and Surrealism, and mirror the dazzling imagery created by artists Fred Tomaselli and Giuseppe Arcimboldo.  

“I like to think about the underlying factors that motivate things to generate action: to move toward or away from something, or to remain still. Staying alive is usually the cause for the motivation, which is typically not apparent or conscious to the experiencer of the motivation. People, creatures, plants, materials – all moving toward each other, moving away from each other, or remaining still in different patterns and speeds, and for different reasons. For good and bad reasons, or for no reason. The Bioforms reflect what collects from all of this, like a microscope slide. The individual elements move together and away from each other for different reasons on different days."

Bioforms 12 by Kelly Allen

"I create batches of individual Bioform elements at a time, like a school of fish. I then release them onto the white space on the table, where they start to swim around and find others to connect to, temporarily or permanently. This happens with all of life, all the time. That is a comforting thought.” 

About Kelly

Kelly was born on the east side of Michigan. When she started high school, her family moved to Grand Rapids. Kelly has moved away from the area for several stints to travel, study, teach, and exhibit her work, with one longer stay on the West Coast of the United States.  

Kelly has had an incredible reputation as a hardworking, well-loved, respected, and appreciated artist in the Grand Rapids area since 2003. She enjoys life here in Grand Rapids and spends much of her time with her partner Ryan Mulder and her beloved doggies Pumpkin and Stevie. 

Kelly is represented by LaFontsee Galleries & Framing. More information and images can be viewed at both lafontsee.com and kellyallen.com 

Kelly has contributed to the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy of Western Michigan University, see her article here.