About the Artwork

We love working together!

Many things have influenced our work. Our families and teachers, all those great ones at the Kansas City Art Institute including Stanley Lewis, who taught us to see. Pat Flammia and Harold Balazs, Northwest artists extraordinaires. Travels to Italy, Mexico, Spain, New Mexico and Arizona. The Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas. The folk art in all cultures. Humor, color and the great mystery. Our love of wilderness. And, well, crows and chickens...

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The process, for each of us separately, is about discovery. Allen chisels, cuts, carves and sands, allowing the wood to reveal to him what it wants to become. Mary Dee continues the process of pulling the spirit through with color and definition.

Mary Dee with Totem

We work intuitively with very little verbal communication. It is a magical dance, the final piece a visual dialogue between us, with Allen starting the sentence and Mary Dee completing it.

Allen and Mary Dee in the Studio