Tom's Sculpture and Inlay

Tom Allen described his woodwork as painting, but his palette consisted of a variety of domestic and exotic woods such as walnut, maple, cherry, bloodwood, bubinga, and pink ivory as well as semi-precious materials such as lapis, turquoise, silver, and abalone. He called this medium Sculptural Marquetry, using the variety of natural colored woods to sculpt his images of Northwest life. Unlike conventional intarsia and marquetry, sculptural marquetry uses pieces of wood 1/4" to 6" thick, each separately cut and shaped to form the three dimensional image. Tom has done pieces varying from several inches in size to a twenty-three foot long aerial landscape and a fifteen foot interactive Kapok Tree. Tom drew much of his inspiration from ancient artwork created in Egypt and China 3000 to 5000 years ago.