ThisWeek CW 01/10/2013
The city of Canal Winchester received an early Christmas gift from resident artist Dick Weiser last month.
Ten framed prints of Weiser’s watercolor paintings now adorn the walls of several municipal buildings, including the Town Hall.
“Dick and Jo Weiser came to me a couple months ago now and sat down and said they’d like to do something else for the city,” Mayor Michael Ebert said. “Well, when you hear that, you can think of a thousand different things they could do, and we talked and talked about that.”
Weiser said that during the conversation, he realized how little art was hanging in city offices.
“We were having a conversation about all sorts of things when I said, ‘your walls look kind of bare,’ and he said, ‘yep, they are,’ so I asked if the city would like to have some framed prints and he accepted,” Weiser said.
Weiser, who was educated as an architectural engineer, said he took up watercolor painting during a lengthy recovery from a 1970 heart attack.
“The recovery time was eight to 10 weeks at that time, not the four or five days like today, and I became acquainted with Leland McClelland, who was a well-known artist and watercolor teacher in Lancaster,” Weiser said. “I ended up working with him for five or six years before going off on my own and now I’ve done a number of commissioned paintings — in the hundreds.”
Weiser was born and raised in Canal Winchester and uses the area as inspiration for most of the scenes he paints. Since retiring in 1990, he said he has focused on his art and community involvement.
As far as he’s concerned, he “hasn’t had a boring day” in his life since retiring.
“Canal Winchester has been good to us, and I’ve said this before, but when we give back to the community like this, that’s our way of paying back for all the things that have been given to us from the community,” Weiser said.
His wife, Jo, also paints; however, Weiser pointed out, “her only problem is she doesn’t have enough time for it, being so involved in the Human Services organization and church activities.
“It’s just a thing we both enjoy and we’ll continue to paint and to contribute to the community.”
Ebert said he’s thankful for everything that the Weisers do, and he’s enjoying the donated artwork immensely.
“For someone who’s done so much for this community, we’re proud to have his works displayed and very appreciative that he was willing and able to provide them,” Ebert said.