Lawrence E. “Joe” Allred, Ph.D. began creating metal sculptures later in life, in 2015, after a long career in biomedical science, in industry, followed by moving back to academia, where he played a principal role in creating several pharmaceutical and medical device companies from university research discoveries. Allred had a scientific research and business career spanning both industrial and public sectors.
Joe always had artistic energy. In his early life and university education, his creative outlets were writing fiction and live theater. He was the only science student at the university with a drama scholarship partially funding his undergraduate education.
Allred’s sculptures begin when he chooses or fabricates steel pieces with interesting properties; size, shape, texture, and mass. He lives with them, looking at them sometimes for months. He lays pieces together to discover if and how they begin to “speak” to each other and to him. When he writes fiction, his characters often surprise him as the story reveals itself. Similarly, shaping steel can also surprise him—a vision forms.
