I enjoy sharing my knowledge or skill sets with others. First, during my business career. More recently in placing my own signature and impressions of what we can gain from art and poetry, as well as how I create in each medium. I wish to provide a vision of art and poetry not found elsewhere. Feel free to ask questions. Take special care. There is only one you.

~ Allen

Interview

A: Thanks for asking. Our friendship is more like a mid-size book than a few facts. I’ll attempt to be brief. I became familiar with his music in college, through Glenn Yarbrough singing Rod’s songs. If I want to meet someone, I have never been afraid to write them a nice letter. I did so with Rod, and he answered. I asked if a select cut from a record was written at Ocean Beach. He answered “Yes!” and a little time later he wrote me an apology for being so terse in his answer.

We started to write more. He was not at his peak of popularity quite yet. We quickly became men of letters, not completely unlike “Letters on Poetry from W. B. Yeats to Dorothy Wellesley." By 1967 he was calling me on the phone, telling me of projects he had in the wind. I was working long hours and he had a busy schedule, so we soon adopted our letter writing exchange as our primary communication system. I wrote more than he, and he was apologizing for his lack of timely responses. I started sending him my annual Christmas poetry book, with no requirement on his part to answer. I tried hard to never ask anything of Rod and was always courteous of his time and was clear in why I was writing. By 1968, he started sending me first release copies of his new books and records. It became a game to see if I could buy his newest book/record before he’d send one to me. The final tally was that Rod beat me 31 times.

For first date with my wife, Susan, I took her to see Rod in concert, and after show, took her backstage to meet Rod and Charles Schultz. I think that moment, for Rod and me, cemented our friendship. There is much more, but I think you get the idea. I’ll close with this except from a letter Rod wrote to me in 1984. “I have been a willing voyeur over the years watching you come of age as a poet--delighted as each new book or poem showed great leaps forward! “Knowing When to Touch” has some of the best lines you've ever written. "Knowing When to Touch, #2" is not only your best poem but the best piece of poetry I've read by anyone in a long, long time. It is lean, graceful, and totally accessible. If our conversations-- they don't seem so long ago to me--and my poetry has taught you anything it is that communication is the art and artlessness of poetry. I am very proud of that. Most of all, your last two books have shown you have a distinctive voice--unlike anyone else's. You owe nothing to me or any other writer. I would love to have been the literary fly on the wall at 12:27 AM last December 10th when you were writing "K.W.T.T.#2."

Only a friend of almost 50 years could send such candid thoughts. You’ll find the poem "Knowing When to Touch, #2" in our Flash Dream book. Thanks. ~ Allen

A: My main theme is color and its application.  My goal of most digital prints is to catch a person’s eye with the use of color.

I use three possible starting points to create a digital print:  1. An original photograph of general topics, clouds, trees, etc.  2. A photo of one of my oil paintings and/or sketch.  3.  An already existing digital print.

Using my Mac computer, I begin by placing the existing image on Adobe Elements, where 75% of the work will be done.  I will augment the use of Pixelmator Classic or Pixelmator Pro as needed.  If I require additional software, I will use other tools as needed.

I manipulate or swirl the art piece until my mind tells me “It’s a print.” The age-old trick for successful art or writing is knowing when to stop. The artist’s eye is always the key. It takes about 3 to 4 hours to create the print, after I have decided on a source image. Deciding on a source image and logging the art requires additional time.

On occasion, I will save images of the print during the creation process. Those images could be used to illustrate the art steps taken to get to the final product. This is valuable in preparing for an art show or teach print making techniques.

As I am producing a print, the name of the print will pop into my mind and that is a first warning of when to stop. 

I will save final image in tiff, jpeg, and PNG – for further applications as needed.  I will log the date and time the piece was created and save an image of final print in a Filemaker database as an archive.  I also save the best images of the print in a file folder for each print, in case a larger image of the original is needed down the road. 

I am swayed by impressions from my friends as too which prints should be offered for sale. I have over 1,900 pieces of art that I can access and I cannot keep every image in stock - for obvious reasons.

The most surprising fact for viewers to understand is the transformation from the source image to the look of the final print.

As an example, the print “Galaxy Born” was created from a photo of a Hydrangea plant. It is special as it is one of the very few digital prints where I shot a photo specifically to make a digital print - and the photo was taken the same day as I completed the print.

Here are my tips:  

1. When sorting art print files, do not randomly toss out extra copies of prints until you look at all of them together and determine which ones have the highest resolution or clearest image. 

2. There is value in saving prints that show the progression (steps) of the process of making the final print. Such prints might be needed for events like gallery showings or ‘how-to-do art’ for a art magazine. 

3. No artist can save every piece of art they create.  If you are not sure if you should save a print for others to enjoy for years to come, get opinions from others before you toss them.  Always save hi res, clear photos of art for your historical archives and so a good photo lab can make prints after the original is gone.

A: I think every writer would have a different answer to this question. I’ll give you my personal distinction between the two. A slogan is a short and to the point comment on one subject.  It could be a serious or wise-cracking response.  

A poem might address more serious subjects and contain several thoughts to satisfy the steps of completing the poem.  The poem might have an unexpected twist at the end.  Some poems can be quite lengthy.  The goal of both genres is to tell a story, make the reader think or evoke an emotion.

Biography

Allen Field Weitzel is a fifth generation native of California, born in San Jose. He studied Fine Arts at the California College of Arts and Crafts, in Oakland, and San Jose State University.

An accomplished painter, Allen has sold oil paintings in galleries, one man shows, on commercial art websites and from his website. Allen has penned over 33,000 poems and has created 109 poetry and art books. The six newest books are: “Flash Dream, Art & Poetry” (on Amazon), “Welcome to Wowsville,” “The Color of Dazzle,” “Art, Moons & Flora,” “Weitzel Words” and “Allen’s Personal Favorites.” All books are available from Allen.

Mentored in his writing by Michael McClure and Rod McKuen, Allen has performed poetry readings to high schools, colleges, on television, and radio. The loss of Rod McKuen in 2015 impacted Allen, as well as most poetry and music lovers.

For 51 years, Allen was a member of the western stunt group known as the Original Fall Guys, performing live action western action/stunt shows. As Allen and his Fall Guys fellow performers like to quip, “We can still fall, we just can’t get up!” 🤣!

In 2012, Allen retired from his 45-year career of managing amusement parks. He applied his skill sets at Frontier Village Amusement Park and Winchester Mystery House (both in San Jose, CA) and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, in Santa Cruz, California.

Over the years, with his combined writings of poetry and business articles, this author has appeared in over 740+ periodicals, publications, and anthologies, all while he was maintaining his full time vocation in the amusement industry, and helping Susan raise their family. In his side job of writing freelance articles for the amusement industry spanned the years from 1978 to 2021.

In 2011, Allen assisted his brother, Warren, in editing and publishing Warren’s book, Tally-Ho Green, about Warren’s military experiences as a combat Platoon Sergeant in Vietnam. Warren’s sequel book, Ricochet Red. Warren’s new book titled Tracer Rounds is completed. All books are available on Amazon.com. Brother Warren also managed amusement parks for his career and currently manages 3 successful stock clubs.

In 2013, Arcadia Publishing released their book titled: Images Of America - Frontier Village, by Bob Johnson. Allen is proud to have worked with Bob as a factual consultant on the book about Frontier Village - a park that Allen worked at for 15 years.

Not to let his early art training go to waste, in 2004, Allen picked up the brushes again and returned to his craft of blending colors on canvas for all the world to see. To date, Allen has completed over 2,000 paintings, 2,400 digital prints, and hundreds of sketches. Allen recently started painting with acrylics after many years of only painting by oil.

If all this activity is not enough, Allen also collects vinyl records and advises others on their record collections. Allen has one of world’s largest collection of Rod McKuen books, records, CDs, as well as many personal letters and cards from Rod.

Allen resides in San Jose, California with his wife, Susan. His sons, Sean and Tod, are both computer experts. Sean retired from the industry to become a stay-at-home Dad, Sean’s wife, Beth, is a mechanical engineer. They have 2 children.