Allen Nace, born in 1954 in Kingston, New York has led a colorful and varied life.  He is an avid sports minded individual and participated in a variety of sports.  An athlete  in high school days .  He also participated in a variety of sports, including football, handball, tennis and baseball.  He played baseball into his fourties.  He then took up cycling and returned to boxing.  He boxed in the Ringside World Championships and did well and received national and international attention.  He also operated a gym under the former World Champion Bill Costello and was trained by Bill.  Allen coached under Bill and took over the gym as Director when Bill passed.  Allen also is a Professional Boxing Judge in New York State.  He is also the Founder of the Tour de Kingston Cycling Event.

Allen has a life partner and 3 children.

Allen (Sonny) Nace had the usual art class experience in school but was not interested at a young age.  in his 40s he started training in charcoal drawing in Woodstock, New York.  After 8-10 years he bagan studting acrylic painting in Kingston, New York.  

His charcoal works are mainly object art and  uses shading to create the object rather than drawing the object.  He credits this experience with helping him advance in acrylic painting and the shading required there.

Many of his works are still life and landscapes.  He also has done animals ( dogs and birds). The works vary between realism and impressionism.  He describes them as Nacism.  When asked what that means he loosly describes art as an avenue to explore talents that are hidden.  He states that a person can draw or paint.  It is not necessary to make your work look like someone elses.  Paint what you see.  Either visually or spiritually.  In Nacism there are many levels to a painting.  An apple can be completed in 30 minutes or it can take weeks.  A person may be happy with their work at any point and thats ok.  Nace likes to use pieces to learn.  He has done similar still life paintings over and over again each time trying something new to bring it to a different level using highlights or shading.  

His art therapy approach has been simple.  Working with groups of people, for example: 6 people at table, with an apple in the middle he has them paint the apple, mixing their own colors.  When done the next project is a red apple, green apple and a lemon.  with the six people sitting in different positions they develop six different paintings.  Discussion about which one is the right one allows individuals to gain insight into the need to respect the views of others even if they don't agree.  In the case of the project each person viewed the same situation and each has a different interpertation because of their viewing perspective.