A Bit About Allison
Or…The Origin Story
Or…The Story of Crafting a Business from My Creative Passion
Allison rolling on the floor with her art at Zero Foot Hills in December of 2022
My art discovery happened in high school in Long Island, NY. The summer after my freshman year I took an art class at the local Waldorf School and fell in love. From then on I was the kid cutting class to hang out in the art room, which my high school art teachers seemed to support. They never turned me in any way!
Each summer I would take art classes, which eventually led me to study Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), graduating in 2001. I gravitated towards Printmaking because I was drawn to the process and its physicality.
Image: RISD 2001 Printmaking & Ceramics Senior Exhibition poster
At the time I wasn’t very sure what kind of artist I was, and it felt like there were so many possibilities with printmaking that I could do anything. I particularly enjoyed the process of mastering the tools and materials involved.
After graduating I worked as a jewelry sample maker at a costume jewelry company in Providence, RI, and worked my way up to Designer.
Image: A Swarovski crystal and crocheted necklace for O by Oscar de la Renta by Allison Belolan
I gradually worked my way up to become a Designer. Initially, I believed this was my calling, so I pursued a degree in jewelry design at FIT in NYC. This opened doors for me to work with well-known brands like Betsey Johnson and Kenneth Cole. However, I soon realized that the fashion industry didn't align with my values. While I enjoyed the design work, the overall environment was unsupportive and demanding, making me unhappy.
In 2008, I decided to return to school once more and earned a master's degree in Art Education from the School of Visual Arts in NYC.
Image: Allison with her two great friends from SVA, Jessica Kitzman & Caroline Clark
After completing the intense one-year program, I began teaching art at PS 317, The Waterside Children’s Studio School in Rockaway Park, Queens. Once I discovered the philosophy of Teaching for Artistic Behavior, teaching art to students in PreK-5th grade became a truly fulfilling experience. In 2015, my family relocated from Brooklyn to Westchester, and I began teaching elementary art in the Bedford Central School District. Working with kids to make art is such a wonderful experience. I loved getting to know each child as an artist and watching them grow in their confidence and abilities. The one thing that was missing for most of my teaching career was my own art practice.
In 2019, during my recovery from arm and wrist surgery, I came to understand that my decade-long career as an art teacher in New York public schools, coupled with raising two elementary school-aged children, had left me completely burnt out. I desperately needed a change. I needed to change something. So I decided to leave teaching and focus on making, showing, and selling my own art.
Allison on her last day teaching on the last day of school in 2019 at Pound Ridge Elementary School (PRES)
Refocusing on my own artwork made me realize that since graduating from RISD in 2001, I had either been designing for others or teaching art. The past few years, marked by self-reflection, were further shaped by my recovery from two surgeries and caring for my children during and after the pandemic. I had to relearn the art-making process, which had been a challenge, yet incredibly rewarding.
My journey back to my art over the past few years has been nothing short of amazing. It began with playful mark-making and experimentation with watercolors during my recovery, as I slowly regained movement and strength in my wrists. Later, I engaged in collage challenges with various online communities such as the Paris Collage Collective and Februllage. Using prompts to kickstart my creative process proved invaluable, and I highly recommend it to anyone.
Creativity, I discovered, is like a muscle; it requires warming up, especially if it has been dormant or is being used in a new way. After several weeks of working with prompts, I gradually transitioned to exploring my own ideas, leading to the creation of smaller collections and eventually larger ones.
Now, I am fully immersed in my art practice, and I couldn't be happier.
Allison at Superfine NYC in 2022 photo credit: James Miille