James Allen

ARTIST STATEMENT

Visual problem solving is how I process my states of being as they compound and evolve over time. Using painting, printmaking, and musical sounds, I create nonlinear personal narratives and abstract landscapes that are rooted in human relationships and a deep connection with the natural world. Through abstraction, I orchestrate layers of memory retrieval and emotional processing. My process-oriented practice embraces accumulation, entropy, and the subsequent reorganization of raw, intuitive information. 

Working instinctively, I allow forms to emerge in the moment. Rhythmic, painterly expressions, balanced with atmospheric environments mirror life’s nonlinear unfolding. Like an ever-growing scrapbook or run-on sentence of consciousness, my work resists closure, remaining mutable and carried forward by repeated gestures. These explorations trace the ebb and flow between inner and outer worlds in the development of self awareness—grounded in a continuous process of rewriting, reimagining, and reconnecting.