Von Allen was born in Union City, Pennsylvania in 1950. She is a faculty member at Brigham Young University and an artist known for her organically abstract sculpture.  She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Allen studied at Edinboro State College in Edinboro, Pennsylvania (BA, 1973; MA, 1976); she later earned an MFA in ceramics at Syracuse University in New York (1984).  She joined the faculty at BYU in 1984 as associate professor and head of the ceramics program.  Her large vertical ceramic sculptures which previously consisted of nonrepresentational images have evolved to include elements of an anatomical form.

Allen’s work was featured in Women Artist of Utah exhibition in Springville, Utah. Her sculpture Kourous III (Youth III) is a dynamic frontal nude. Spiral Lapse (1989) is another example of her work.

Biographical information on this page was adapted from Artists of Utah.