Elmer Lucille Allen
Elmer Lucille Allen (born in Louisville, Kentucky, 1931) is a ceramic artist and chemist who graduated from what is now Spalding University in 1953. She became the first African American chemist at Brown-Forman in 1966.[1]
Allen was born in the Depression era in Louisville, Kentucky, at a time when it was still a segregated city. She took her first art class, a sewing class, in seventh grade at Madison Street Junior High School. She stated in an interview that the first artist she identified with was her teacher, Ms. Hattie Figg, who taught painting at the junior high. She learned many functional crafts in junior high, such as shoe repair, printing, sewing, and carpentry. She also learned various crafts at the Plymouth Settlement House and Presbyterian Community Center. She was also a Girl Scout, and this activity fostered her interest in art. She graduated from Central High School in 1949, at a time when African-American women had very few opportunities available to them.
Allen retired from Brown-Forman in 1997, after which she devoted more time to her art. Starting in 1981 she began to study art at the University of Louisville, receiving her Masters of Creative Arts with a focus in ceramics and fiber in 2002.[2] She states that, "When I rented my first studio in 2005 at Mellwood, I knew that I was truly an artist."[3] Her work is part of the 2016 Women's Artist Exhibition: The African Heritage Experience at "The Kentucky Center for African American Heritage."[4]
Speaking of her ceramics, Allen states, "I make the things that I want, and I have always liked teapots." She enjoys the fact that if she made something she did not like, she could simply start over again. Her platters are typically dark and molten, while her teapots are colorful and graphic.