Allen was an artistic child who began sculpting at the age of 13, when she was assigned to make an ashtray and instead created a bust of Aristotle. She was mentored by the Lithuanian-American sculptor William Zorach who declared her a prodigy. She earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of South Alabama in 1978. She also studied at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and received her Masters at the Pratt Institute.
