Artist seeks truth through creation

OREM — Max Weaver's home is so stuffed with paintings, pots and sculptures that walking through his front room feels like a trip to the art museum — except Weaver ran out of wall space, so he has to use tables, beds and chairs to show off his work.

"Art is just a way to discover truth," said the 91-year-old artist. "I could paint and paint and paint until the day I die and I would never get to the end of the truth."

Weaver, a retired Brigham Young University professor who taught art at various different Utah schools for more than 40 years, fully intends to test that theory, too.

When asked how many pieces of art he's created over the years, his face went blank. "Hundreds, maybe?" he said, unsure of how even to guess. He finished his last painting, a stunning 2-by-5-foot rendition of the red-rock cliffs at Zion National Park, on his hands and knees. Because of a torn ligament, he couldn't raise his shoulder to complete the brush strokes standing up. "I'm 91 years old," he said. "But if the Lord will permit me, I'll paint on the way to heaven or hell."

Weaver does more than paint, though. He considers himself well versed in more than 14 different mediums, including ceramics, printmaking, glass, wood and fiber. The beautiful mosaic-topped tables and sleek pottery decorating his home are proof of his versatility. His favorite medium? "The one that I'm working at the moment," he said.

But as much as Weaver enjoys the feel of a brush in his hands or clay between his fingers, that's not why he chose to become an art teacher. When he talks about his years as a teacher, he focuses on stories about his students. He talks about how he built enough rapport with a group of miscreant boys that he successfully convinced them to stop sneaking their friends into movies without paying for tickets. He tells stories about playing baseball with his students at recess and singing Christmas carols in multiple languages.

It is exciting, he said, to stretch students and then watch as they grow to meet expectations. He doesn't believe, although his wife Ruth respectfully disagrees, that it took any special gift to produce any of the artwork that fills his home. "No two people paint alike — and that's the way it should be," he said. "All people have the ability to create art."

The difficult part, he said, is teaching people to recognize the beauty that surrounds them. Over the years, Weaver has made a point of developing what he calls his "peripheral vision." Stop worrying about stumbling and look around, he said.