Artist statement and Bio Allen Vandever Chicago Artist

Hello! My name is Allen Vandever. For those of you who don’t know me, I am contemporary Artist Based out of Chicago. I am a father, husband, and a son. Family and friends are very important to me. I have lived my life with the goal of making every year worthy of a good movie or a great book. I take risks, embrace adventure and live life to the fullest. And as a result, I have many wonderful stories. 

My childhood was unusual. I was raised by three different families and lived in 12 different cities. I was victim of sexual abuse and have been dealing with that trauma ever since. I was also fiscally handicapped, however, I managed to make the most of my childhood. My life has been fulfilling and worth living. 

I have a very diverse work and life experience; college football, farm hand on a cattle ranch, curator and manager of art galleries, started my own religion, art editor for a women spirituality magazine, accidentally became manager of a S&M leather store on Burden Street, worked in a hospice,  and ran a successful import business. I later went to a yoga school until discovering the school was a front for a prostitution ring. I left shortly after this discovery.

I rubbed elbows with one of LA’s rock and roll elite who helped me sell my art. This allowed me to travel and live in Hawaii for a number of years where I had my first child.

I moved back to Chicago in 2008 to establish myself in the art world. After a lot of hard work, I have established myself as a major player in the Chicago art seen. I have been part of a few tech startups involving interactive clothing using NFC chips and QR codes.  I am now art director for a company that is using bitcoins to archive art.

 Artist Statement - I feel an artist’s body of work is his unwritten biography, archiving his progress in both craftsmanship and self-discovery, all the while capturing the most personal and essential moments in his life, and revealing his personal reflections.

In my painting, I feel free from the jumble of words all too limited in their ability to fully illustrate an image of my sensations and reflections. Painting is a way to bypass the filter of conscious analysis thus by-passing the point in which we attempt to name and catalog our responses, which often diminishes the true glory of the moment.

I am free to explore my dreams that are so intensely alive, they continue to permeate my vision in the material world. I have yet to find the words capable of illustrating such glorious visions, so I paint them in an attempt to relive them, and in that I endeavor to apply a pinprick into the veil between our worlds, allowing a speck of light to illuminate its existence to others. I aspire to reveal such worlds to my son, that the images from my journey inspire him to begin his own exploration, for a mere sliver of light is enough to bring the world gushing forth, demolishing the walls that confine our thoughts.

Although I fail to find the words to convey my passion, I cannot deny their role in my reflection, for words have allowed me to further explore the images I have been moved to create. When I write, I am transported into the silent realm of the mind, where the voices of human reason and passion can be heard in intimate conversation, contemplating the infinite dimensions of being.

http://www.allenvandever.com

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