David Allen was born in South Bend, Indiana USA in 1969. He was interested in drawing at a very early age and won several local art awards. In 1992 he graduated with honors from Purdue University and earned a Bachelors degree in Fine Art and an Associates degree in Technical Graphics. After graduation, Allen accepted a Graphic Artist position at Purdue University, and in 1996 became the Director of Multimedia Resources for the School of Pharmacy at Purdue and worked there until 2009. In 2003 he earned a Masters degree in Fine Art from Purdue and opened his first solo exhibition entitled "Elemental Worlds." The unique compositions of the work in this exhibition combined Allen's drawings, writings, and 3D computer graphics into both printed and animated imagery. In 2005, David Allen received an Indiana Arts Commission Grant to aid in the creation of a body of work entitled "Trihedron (Birth, Life, Death)."

David M. Allen’s work has been exhibited at the 2016 Indiana Now exhibition, 2005 International Digital Art Awards and the 1992 SIGGRAPH art exhibition. He has had work published in Computer Artist Magazine, AV Video, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, The Journal of Organic Chemistry and Science. Also, Allen has coauthored several computer based instructional applications that are used at Purdue University and other universities around the world.