Sharing Lessons Learned

Sculptor John Weidman at 80 is still creating and sharing his skills

As his close friend of 47 years, Peter Cook says a very young John Weidman had his heart set on a toy car and asked his university professor father to buy it for him. 

“‘Why don’t you try making one yourself?’ was the answer,” Cook says. “That wasn’t to deny him. It was to encourage him to acquire what he wanted in the right way and the creative way.”

Weidman explains, “My parents were both very musical and artistic in their own right, and they encouraged expression. It was not a restrictive (upbringing). It was a tutorial.”

Lesson learned. Weidman, now 80, is the master sculptor, art director and co-founder with Paul Andres of the renowned Andres Institute of Art in Brookline. 

The institute is the largest outdoor sculpture park in New England and is located on a 140-acre former ski area that earlier in its history functioned as a granite quarry. About 100 stone and metal masterpieces are displayed among the trees and in gardens along the 11 forested hillside hiking trails. 

“John is a free spirit. He’s a very interesting guy. He’s a very kind guy. He’s an exceptional person, and he’s an extraordinarily talented guy,” says Cook, a member of the board of directors and the treasurer of the institute.

One day when Weidman was carving some wood, it occurred to him that making sculpture was something he wanted to do for the rest of his life. 

“This is all I wanted to do. It wasn’t an epiphany. I happened to be 18,” says Weidman, who over the course of his nonlinear journey studied anatomy and dissection at Harvard Medical School. “I’d been doing stuff long before that. All my life I’d been making what I needed or what I wanted. I was doing all kinds of other stuff at that time, too, but it never gave me that emotion.”

Weidman never became a physician, but he has achieved incandescent fame as an artist. He is the recipient of more than 75 prestigious national and international awards, and he is listed on the Inventory of American Sculpture and Painting, National Museum of AA and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Weidman’s weathered steel piece titled “Monument to Memory” is a permanent sculpture located in Nashua’s Downtown Sculpture Loop.

A recently published book, “John M. Weidman — A Familiar Place” is a summary of the artist’s life and creative experiences in the world and includes portraits and photographs of his work. He is also the recipient of the highly coveted 2023 New Hampshire Governor’s Arts Award for Distinguished Leadership in the Arts. 

Weidman is not impressed by his A-list celebrity status in the art world. What matters most is that he is a beloved mentor whose mission is to train and encourage the next generation of artists.

“What it (the fame) means is that so many people have helped me. We don’t do things alone. I’ve been given a studio for 43 years free of charge. That’s my impetus to give back to other artists, to pass that energy on. I do what I can to help somebody else as I’ve been helped,” says Weidman, who credits his wife, Nadiya, an accomplished artist in her own right. 

“It’s important to do that. I don’t feel guilty getting everything I did,” he says. “I feel empowered to do something good with it and to say, ‘Here’s an idea. Here’s a way to do it. Watch this. Come and try it this way.’ Passing that information on to others is very important to me.”

That desire led to the creation of the successful Andres Institute of Art Annual International Symposium about 25 years ago. 

“We invite artists from all over the world. We have three artists come for three weeks in the fall. The intentionality of what we do is to bring another perspective of an individual’s life, and I want to help artists learn about the importance of art in society, as it is in Europe, Asia and so forth. I say, ‘Come here. Walk around. Let your heart jump out and tell you what to do.’ As an artist they have the whole world to work with,” he says.

Artists are invited by Weidman to attend the symposium.

“He looks at portfolios from people he knows of and who know of him. He’s tapped into the worldwide circuit,” Cook says. “Every year we invite people from places like India, Vietnam, Ukraine, Lithuania, Australia and every corner of the world. Every year, everyone has gotten along very well, and that doesn’t happen by accident. It’s by John’s perception of people. He has the uncanny ability to pull together the right group of people, and he does it very well.” 

Weidman said the symposium artists receive the energy of sharing their souls, their minds, their hearts and everything that they do to get there. What he gets in return is joy.

“It’s a lot of fun, because I get to watch people learn stuff and I learn stuff in the process. It’s not just a one-way thing. It’s collaborative. I love a lot of different things about it,” he says. 

While many men his age are retired, there is no rocking chair with his name on it. 

“There’s an end? I don’t believe in retirement,” Weidman says. “I never grew up. I still have infantile thoughts and ideas, because I haven’t learned it yet. The idea of learning something is a drive. That’s where we start every day.”

Art therapy for seniors

Art therapy is a powerful form of healing that can allow people of all ages to process emotions and make connections. It is known to be especially effective for seniors to cope with the loss, grief, depression and other emotions that often accompany aging. Here are some of the benefits: 

1. Boosts brain health.

2. Enhances cognitive skills and
memory.

3. Reduces stress and anxiety.

4. Encourages self-expression,
especially for those with dementia.

5. Provides a creative outlet.

6. Unlocks hidden talents.

7. Enhances self-esteem.

8. Reduces pain and inflammation,
especially for those with arthritis.

9. Alleviates social isolation.

10. Fosters connections between seniors and caregivers.