In 2019, British rock band Def Leppard was inducted into the Rock ’n Roll Hall of Fame. During their acceptance speech, lead singer Joe Elliot acknowledged the resiliency of drummer Rick Allen, who lost his left arm in a tragic car accident in 1984. However, the incident never stopped Allen from playing, and he continues to perform with Def Leppard to this day. Also a talented visual artist, Allen creates abstract pieces “built from rhythm.” His new exhibition at the Wentworth Gallery in Phipps Plaza, “Wings of Hope 2021,” will be accompanied by a talk from the artist, Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 11 and 12. Allen joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to speak about creating decades’ worth of music and art, despite extraordinary challenges.
Rick Allen’s artwork is on display at the Wentworth Gallery at Phipps Plaza. (Courtesy of Rick Allen)
Interview highlights:
On returning to abstract art after decades committed to music:
“It’s well documented that I joined Def Leppard at the age of 15, so then music kind of consumed me at that point,” said Allen. “You know, I still kept going with my photography and just abstract art in general, but it wasn’t really until my youngest daughter was born eleven years ago, and it wasn’t long before we discovered painting together, which was really nice because it reignited my passion for art, and it was a great thing we could do together to connect…. Not many people know this, but I suffer from PTSD, and I find that music and art are actually really healing very therapeutic activities.”
“[‘Wings of Hope’] actually started out as long-exposure photography. What we would do is we would set the camera up in a dark room, and then I would sit behind the drum kit with a stick that lit up. So every time I hit one of the drums or one of the cymbals, the stick had these LED lights inside the stick, so the stick would glow. And obviously, with a long exposure photograph, that would excite the whole idea of being able to paint in mid-air,” Allen said. “I would take those images, and I would print those onto canvas and then further enhance the imagery that we discovered.”
Themes among the pieces in “Wings of Hope:”
“I did a piece a long time ago called ‘Wings of Hope.’ I just felt like it was very fitting. We’re in this terrible situation with this worldwide pandemic, and I feel ‘Wings of Hope’ is something that we all need at the moment. We all need something to look forward to. Hopefully, with that in mind, we can somehow put this behind us in the not-too-distant future.”
“In amongst ‘Wings of Hope,’ I’ve been doing the ‘Legends’ series, which is paintings of people that really inspired me through the years – musicians, singers, drummers, you name it,” said Allen, “But unfortunately, people that aren’t with us anymore, people that are passed. But the fact still remains, these incredible, incredible artists inspired me probably to the point where I wouldn’t necessarily be doing what I’m doing today if it wasn’t for the likes of Jimi Hendrix or John Lennon.”
Rick Allen in front of his painting of Johnny Cash. (Courtesy of Rick Allen)
Allen on exploring religion and spirituality:
“I love the community of church. I’d love to be able to experience that with my family, but I find that sometimes religion doesn’t necessarily teach the idea of it being an inside job. You know, the idea that they kind of tell you to get in the boat, and instead of getting in the boat… rowing to the other side of the river or whatever the metaphor is, you stay in the boat and stay in the middle of the river – which is great, but I think it runs deeper than that. I think there’s a lot more to us as human beings and our spirituality than meets the eye.”
“We have potential to be our absolute best expression, but we also have the potential to show our worst expression. I think all these different belief systems, they have everything,” said Allen. “They have the good, and they have the bad. So it’s my attempt at really understanding and experiencing different points of view and bringing that into my own life experience.”
