Born in Boston, glass artist Leslie Brennan Allen was raised on the mean streets of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Allen suffered a difficult childhood, rife with such trials as entire days spent at the beach, and meager lunches consisting of nothing but Fluffernutters and chicken noodle soup.

These hardships caused Allen to retreat inward and create a world of fantasy and wonder. Escape for Leslie meant hours upon hours of drawing, and making dolls out of tinfoil and sticks.

By age nine Allen was painting with oils and capturing her world on canvas, until her sister and a friend coated themselves in alizarin crimson and rolled around on the shag carpet, causing the paints to be confiscated. Still, “Sun Beflect off Warter” remains one of her proudest achievements.

At age eleven, Leslie was running an art school out of her parent’s basement. For 50 cents a week, neighborhood kids could come and glue things together under Allen’s strict tutelage. Allen continued this work for three weeks.

Leslie’s favorite Beatle is John.

Some other things happened, and then in 1982 Allen found herself studying commercial art at Butera, a small, private school in Boston. After finally agreeing with her instructors that no one was ever going to buy deodorant or toothpaste that came packaged in bright purple and orange containers with swirls all over them, Allen packed up her T-square and moved on.

Years of fair to middling art followed which people still occasionally display when they know Allen is coming to visit, and then in late 1990, Leslie  Allen moved to Seattle, Washington, a Mecca for glass artists.

Upon arriving in Seattle, Leslie's late Great-Grandmother, glass artist Dorothy Orchard Butler, persuaded her to take up the medium. Dorothy O. Butler owned the Sea Garden Studio in Medomak, ME for over 40 years, until her death at age 94 in 1996. Grrr. Dot, as she was called, had always been a source of inspiration and awe for Leslie. Dorothy embodied grace, intelligence and talent, and an almost disturbing devotion to the color purple. She fostered Leslie’s artistic leanings from a very young age.

Leslie took up stained glass as Grrr. Dot’s “continuum” (Dot’s words). In 1991 she opened a shop called The Glass Orchard in West Seattle. By 1992 she was showing and selling at fairs, galleries and markets all over the Pacific Northwest, and the country. In 1994 one of her glass bowls was scouted at a gallery and borrowed for use as a prop in the movie Mad Love starring Drew Barrymore.

Leslie left Seattle and returned to Plymouth in the Spring of 1997. For a few years Leslie concentrated on larger, sculptural pieces. She won many awards from local guilds, and had her work shown in several museums.

In the early part of Y2K she took a sabbatical from her artwork to concentrate on her skills as a Colonial Interpreter for Plimoth Plantation where she worked from 1997-2005. There she lived, breathed and taught 17th century history. She was also able to use her talents to build clay ovens, and dabble in blacksmithing. She spent nine weeks in Machias, ME as part of a core crew of builders responsible for the timber-framed dwellings used in the PBS series Colonial House.

In 2005, Leslie returned to her stained glass roots. She was given the honor of creating unique awards for the Plymouth Independent Film Festival, some of which now grace the homes of filmmakers world wide - including some Academy award winners! The Festival was short lived, but Allen continued to create. She opened her dream shop in Plymouth, MA where she gave classes, sold supplies, hosted gallery shows for local artists, and sold her own work. 

Life changes, an aversion to ice scrapers, and a need for warmth brought Allen to the Florida Keys in 2009 where she now resides full time. When she is not creating in her tropical studio, she enjoys kayaking, cycling and spying on reef dwelling creatures.

Leslie’s favorite color is orange.