Mark Allen

Iwas born in Colorado in 1961 and was raised in the heart of the Bible belt, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. My parents are good Nazarenes. My dad is a typing teacher and served as president of the church choir. My mother is an elementary school secretary and has secretly sold MARY KAY cosmetics, contrary to church doctrine, for 20 years. The cabinets full of countless stacks of pale pink beauty supplies had a startling effect on my work. I went to Bethany Nazarene College for 1 year and never went back/ I like to paint. It allows me to express what I feel about life in ways more meaningful than anything I could say or write. When I first started painting, all of my work centered around my concept of my parents. Lately, I have been focusing on conditions of humanity in a more general context; ie. sex, alcohol, and most recently religion. The paintings explain my feelings about human thought and relationships...and they also look good over the couch.