From Deseret News archives:
Orem artist is master of all mediums
This Orem man is truly an artist of all mediums.
At 91, his collection is impressive. He has pots in every corner and framed artwork on every turn. He has a huge rolled clay collage covering a wall. A concave Christ cast in plaster decorates a table.
The only thing he doesn't do is large stone sculpture. That takes muscles and equipment he doesn't have, he says, but no matter.
He currently has two shows going that feature his work — a display of 50 of his beautiful, colorful ceramic pots at the Orem Public Library and an exhibit of some of his signature red rock paintings at the Springville Art Museum.
Weaver's been told his paintings and pots "are as good as any in Europe," according to Brigham Young University travel study director and art professor Richard Gunn.
But the gentle, soft-spoken teacher said he's just giving in to the muse.
"I get to painting and nothing else matters," he said. "I've spent a lifetime painting the beauty of Utah. We'd go on trips with the kids and I'd take shots. I'd have to make an excuse so we'd have to stop and I could shoot.
"I've no idea how many I've done, and every one's a favorite or I wouldn't have done it," he said.
Weaver was born in Layton and started his art career at Davis High School. He graduated from Utah State University, taught art at Helper Junior High, in Magna, Logan High School, at Utah State University, the University of Hawaii and at Brigham Young University where he retired after 21 years.
When he and his wife, Ruth, were in Nauvoo, Ill., as one of 37 sets of LDS missionaries who taught various arts and crafts in the village there, he would give away prints to patrons with a birthday.
"Pretty soon, we had people who would come back on their birthdays to get one," he said.
He gave 15 paintings of the Nauvoo scenes to BYU. Those hang on the walls in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building today.
He was invited as one of two people to represent Utah craftsmen at a World's Fair in New York.
He doesn't worry much about selling his work seriously, although art patrons are free to buy his pieces at his shows. In fact, over the years, he's sold pots to pay for frames.
"I'm a producer, not a salesman," he said.
He gives his paintings and pots to his six children and 36 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren — who also get lessons from Grandpa if they want them. He isn't nearly as concerned about the monetary side of painting as he is about the art experience.
"I still want to keep doing it. I paint every day, at least I did until my exhibits went up," he said.
