Allen o2o Moore

Interview with Allen

When did you first discover your passion for creating art and tell us a bit about your process?

Creativity and art was a huge part of my childhood, I can remember being known for my creative skills in primary school, I have all my school reports that used to state the same thing each year, “Allen is a quiet young man, He spends his days staring out the window daydreaming and producing artworks which he has a great technical understanding”. In highschool I was advised to attend night art classes. It wasn’t until I returned to university at the age of 30, It was discovered that I had one of the worst dyslexia levels the doctor had seen, he told me that I had used my mind in a way that had developed my artistic skills, and blocked the frustration of not understanding literacy.

So, from the first instance my process from primary school has been Automatism. I have developed this process into my own unique way over the last decade. I draw or paint each day. There are times I will leave a work for months and through a dream or an experience I will see its development and I continue. My automatism varies and includes igniting petroleum or chemicals where I find spirit imagery transpires. I reflect on the imagery and work into the paintings with a grisaille technique. I use traditional materials such as pencils and erasers with various paper weights. My automatic drawing and writing has developed over time and I often I allow myself to be in a trance state, in isolated locations away from distractions.  

Can you share something of your spiritual journey or is there an area of spirituality that particularly interests you?

My spiritual journey started at the age of 7 from memory, but from stories I have been told a lot earlier. I experienced sleep paralysis and spent time after school in the local library looking at books on the paranormal. At 9 I tragically lost my best friend and neighbour, from that moment we had huge amounts of activity in the home. In my teens I began to see and hear spirit. In my twenties I was invited into a private spiritual development group by other mediums that I had met. It’s only in the years at university that I was able to really explore my past and combine them within my artworks through surrealism.  

Do you find your paintings or drawings more challenging? How long does it take to complete a drawing compared to a painting. Do you think they use different forms of consciousness?

I actually find the paintings the biggest challenge as with the drawings there is no planning, it’s purely in the moment whereas with oils it is formed from layers and layers of transparent thin paint so drying takes a long time and this can break a flow. I only decided to try oil painting on my erasmus in Teruel, Spain. It was a moment that I left behind everthing I knew artistically and went back to basics. Time scale is also totally different as some paintings take a year to complete. I feel I go into a different consciousness when painting, there are times that I wake up in the night and see something I didn’t before and find myself magnetised for hours, the hours just pass and I’m so engrossed that I feel outside myself. With drawing it is fast and erratic, the movements are so free and I guess that’s the trance feeling coming over. I’ve actually learnt to feel this moment and it’s quite beautiful. 

What/who inspires you? Do you have an artist you particularly admire?

I’m inspired by some of the many beautifully strange experiences I’ve had which also combined to the person (Group) that inspired me hugely. It started with me accidentally doing my Erasmus in Spain, not Germany as I chose. Two weeks into me being there I was questioning why I had felt pulled there, but also felt so lost. On my morning run in the mountains I had been asking for a sign. During my way down the hill a huge grasshopper I almost ran over stopped me in my tracks. I took an image of the grasshopper, when I viewed the image on a larger screen I saw the rock next to the insect had a face. I googled artists that use grasshoppers, and I discovered Salvador Dali,as it was his biggest fear as a child and i seen (The Great Masturbator) painting. I still have the image and in reflection now I see how it inspires my current works. Shortly after, I visited Dali’s Home and museum where I had a trance experience. Continuing my research I was led to the Surrealist group and their spiritual experimentations. But, I feel without Dali I wouldn’t have found my link to the group, historical automatists, writers and spirit inspired artists. In the last eight years I have really admired Andre Masson, Hilma af klint, Wassily Kandinsky, Georgiana Houghton, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, Dorothea tanning. I’d also like to recognise the many influences I have in the spirit world, that each day and night connect to me. 

You are now in prominent collections of spirit inspired art such as The College of Psychic Artists in London. Do you have any advice for aspiring spirit artists?

Validation of me being a spiritual artist is important and I say this because I was always very reserved in telling people what my art was. I only started being open with telling people a few years ago this was also the case of my spiritual experiences. Seeing that people connect to my art works and are interested in what I project in them is important for me. The advice I would give is, don’t be ashamed of what others may think, know what your sensing is special, Listen and don’t rush the process. In the end it’s like a puzzle and when it all fits together you see the image clearly. 

And as the symbology in my artist name says (o2o) – no limit to wisdom.

Tell me more about your signature o2o?

The o2o has been my signature now since 2014, the Erasmus in Spain as I said in one of the answers was a new beginning, a time of reflecting on myself, past and works. I actually attended an illustration class in university as well as other media, just to see from another perspective. I was working on a cartoon illustration of all things and in one of the drawings I saw a shape of a o and a 2o, this jumped out at me. I just started to use this and like my works the symbol has changed in time. It’s meaning can represent many things such as Divine consciousness, the ultimate beginning, eternal, I thought deeply on this and came to the conclusion that it was my symbol of constant Eternal learning, Or eternal wisdom.

Selected Exhibitions
2025 Tranceducers: Art of Visionaries, Mediums and Automatists
2022 Creative Spirts at The College of Psychic Studies, London