Before becoming an artist, Allison L. Wade got a degree in English, along with working in advertising and marketing. Once she realized where her passion really was, she went back to school to study art at Maryland Institute College of Art. Along with creating unique pieces, she also travels to different venues talking about her artistic experiences, which is why she made a stop at North Central on April 11.
Wade’s first biggest challenge was to expand her art to a larger surface. Moving from just drawing on paper, she was encouraged to use a wall as her canvas. Before this project, the longest she had worked on a piece was about six hours, but after this project, that number changed to over 24 hours.
Photo by Masha Dementieva
Looking to expand her materials, Wade began working with ceramics and yarn. Once she got the hang of working with these tools, she taught herself to create 3D sculptures. These structures began with cardboard and soon grew to wood. For these types of pieces, she chose to focus on balance, tension and areas of connection. She wanted to see “how far (she) could push the materials or sculpture before it collapsed or came apart.”
An important theme of her projects is space. When showcasing her pieces, it is necessary for her to choose the space wisely. For her first show, she “realized the interaction between the pieces was really important.” The sculptures needed to fill up the room enough so that it did not feel empty, but not too much that they couldn’t breathe.
The research that goes into creating different pieces consists of traveling, design websites, sitcoms and observing what is around her. When describing her sources of inspiration, she claimed that something as simple as a construction site has given her ideas.
As she goes along her artistic journey, Wade continues to work with new materials and use the world around her as inspiration. For young and upcoming artists, she says it is important to learn that they “have the freedom to try anything and everything.”
