Archetypal symbols are a powerful touch point between artist and viewer. When an artist explores a theme that has been significant throughout the ages and cultures, her work has a dialogue with a broad group of viewers and taps into a deep place in the human psyche. For glass artist Shelley Muzylowski Allen, that symbol is the horse: utilitarian, mystical, powerful, and gentle, depicted throughout time, from different perspectives, and in a variety of media. For Allen, it is important that her art not only reflect her own experiences, but that it inspire an emotional connection for the viewer. Her menagerie of exquisite horses, safari animals, and magical creatures is indeed inspirational. Blending her glass-blowing and carving ability in shaping
the form with her painterly use of color, gesture, and brushwork in decorating it, results in meticulously crafted, expressively poised, and lusciously adorned sculptures.