JON ALLEN

I am a...

Craftsman
Basically a fancy word to say I like to make stuff. God etched into me a little bit of a creative edge. I have found that there are two basic kinds of creativity… spontaneous and inspired. I have not been blessed with the gift of spontaneous creativity. I wish I was, but alas (yes, alas) I was not. I can’t come up with creative ideas, lyrics, images, etc… out of thin air, rather my creativity is the result of inspiration. I see an image, hear a verse, get and idea, then the creativity flows. When I was younger I drew and painted, nothing too spectacular, not exactly Rembrandt, but I enjoyed it. As I grew older and learned the guitar I began expressing my creativity by writing songs… everything from the light hearted “Yo Mamma” (a classic by the way) to lyrics that didn’t even come from my own experience like “I’m sitting on these steps and the screams aren’t fading. A tear falls from my eye because it must be my fault.” A downer, I know. As I have grown older yet, I write less music, I don’t draw much anymore, but I have taken up the hobby of woodworking. One of my favorite things to do is take raw materials, plan with them, cut them, sand them, and see something created out of essentially nothing. It is a beautiful process.