After years of perfecting a non-traditional sculpting method amidst personal trial, Jennifer Harmon Allen is ready to be patient with more delicate processes
A native of Madison, Connecticut, Jen Harmon Allen first pursued higher education at Wellesley College in nearby Massachusetts in 1991. While she was thrilled to be studying at a prestigious college, Allen was also a fledgling underclassman struggling to discover her strengths. She described her younger self as “lost and intimidated.” But after a series of coincidences landed Allen in an advanced sculpture class —despite not taking the prerequisite course — it didn’t take long to realize she had a natural gift for sculpting.
“I started making sculptures very intuitively, which was surprising to both me and my teacher ,” Allen recalled. “Carlos ran a bronze casting system in our teeny school. He became my mentor, and I started doing bronze work.” After graduating from Wellesley with a BA in Studio Art and serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Houston, Texas, Allen searched for MFA programs to further her sculpture training. BYU was one of a few schools with a foundry that still taught traditional techniques. In the ‘90s when Allen started, BYU’s sculpture program was run by Neil Hadlock — who she characterized as “a great fabricator and a real metal genius.” Read the full article written by Abby Weidmer at art.byu.edu.
