Meet Aloria Weaver | Artist & International Arts Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aloria Weaver and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aloria, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I’m originally from Buffalo, NY (although I haven’t lived there in over twenty years now). When I was a young artist in the early 1990’s, I became an apprentice at the Buffalo Arts Studios of Western New York. The Director, an incredible woman named Joanna Angie, mentored me for nearly a decade. She is an oil painter, a Buddhist, and deeply compassionate and spiritual person. I think she really saw that I needed guidance and she gave me direction and support at a critical time in my life as I was coming of age.

Through the B.A.S. apprenticeship, and later an internship there, I studied directly with a number of different professional working artists by assisting them with their work. That included learning skills such as oil painting, making stretcher bars, stretching and priming canvases, as as well as photography, etching and printmaking, clay tile mosaics and mural painting. Often, I was hired as an assistant and paid for the work I did, which gave me a lot of confidence in my work at a young age. I also assisted with installing exhibitions in the gallery, organizing the opening receptions and cleaning up afterward. I like to say I cut my teeth on wine and brie as a young artist!

Looking back on those years, the variety of skills I learned also helped me to learn a great deal about myself, my capabilities, my innate talents and strengths. When I had my first big painting commission at the age of 17, right out of high school, I made my own stretcher bars, stretched and primed my own canvases, and tackled the project with confidence.

Decades later, I have a master’s degree in Traditional Arts from The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts in London, UK. I was one of only twelve international students to be admitted. My arts practice today includes oil and egg tempera painting, gilding, medieval stained glass, stone carving, and handmade (Moroccan style) ceramic tiles, to name a few. I’ve been teaching internationally for over a decade now and am currently building “Skyhill Sanctuary” in Paonia, CO where other young artists will one day have the opportunity to come and apprentice.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My work has primarily been as an oil painter for nearly three decades now. In my early career, I worked with what I knew – self-guided experimentation and exploration was my modus operandi for at least a decade or so. Eventually, I started teaching and that lead me to want to continue my own studies. I’ve always been an avid researcher, but all the books and videos in the world just can’t replace the experience of hands-on study with a master of their craft. As an artist, at some point you come to a place where your vision exceeds your technical ability, so there’s a choice to either plateau and continue repeating the same familiar things, or to expand and grow as an artist and a person.

Studying Traditional Arts in London was hugely transformative for me. I discovered an affinity for medieval stained glass, which is a practice of glass painting that is kiln fired to make it permanent, just as you see in old cathedrals in Europe. Finding new applications for my painting skills really keeps me inspired an in that “beginner’s mind” which is a place of awe, wonder and discovery. I’ve studied egg tempera icon painting and gilding in both the Italian and Russo-Byzantine traditions. The Italian tradition boasts an unbroken lineage of master to student transmission going from my teacher, Fred Wessel, all the way back to Fra Angelico in 1430. I also trained in the sight-size method of classical realism from the Florence of Academy of Art tradition. That honed my abilities for realism in a way that nothing else can.

It has really been a synthesis of study in a variety of different traditions, mediums and techniques that has led me to where I am now in my art career. I’ve developed my own technique for oil portraiture (which I also teach) that involves layering and glazing.. and even I am still amazed by the results! And that’s a wonderful place to be as an artist, when you can look at your own work and feel that sense of wonder and amazement at what your hands created.

If there’s anything I’ve learned along the way, it’s that creating great art is about loving the process. It’s a love of labor. As a culture, I think we’ve been conditioned to believe that labor is something to be avoided at all costs; an unpleasant necessity of life. But if we understand the history of Art and craft, humankind has been MAKING for the pure pleasure in it for millennia. What we make with our hands makes us who we are – the beauty we create outside of ourselves is reflected inside of us, and that is a truly magical thing. The work of art isn’t the end goal. It’s the beautiful result of a process of becoming more human.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
In the magical North Fork Valley mountain shire, there is a little town called Paonia. That’s where I live and where I’m building Skyhill Sanctuary. Historically, Paonia is an agrarian community and it’s full of fruit orchards and farmers, vineyards, wineries, and of course, there’s Delicious Orchards’ apple cider. Mountain Oven Bakery uses local organically grown grain and the flour is milled at Edesia Community Kitchen. Even Black Cat pizza in Hotckhiss uses Mountain Oven flour for their pizza crust. My favorite place to eat is at the Arbol Farmer’s Market in the summer, or community dinners and ice cream at the Hearth, both run by The Learning Council nonprofit. The Old River Trading Post also serves delicious organic community meals by donation. Walking into the Trading Post feels like going back to a simpler, more wholesome time. Farm to Table isn’t so much of a luxury here as it is a way of life.

I can’t really say it better than Mountain Oven: “Immense wild beauty surrounds our community of farmers, makers, artists, and folks who enjoy living in harmony with one another and the land. Our community celebrates a revitalization of ways of life and work that return us to the land and to each other: folk traditions, baking, wine making, seed saving, art, and community service. These acts nourish the soul and support our ability to thrive together in the eclectic Paonian rendition of Rural America.”

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today without my husband, David Heskin. He is an incredible artist and alchemist whose proficiency and versatility with mediums keeps me constantly challenged and inspired to learn more. David and I have been oil painting, studying and teaching together for almost eighteen years now, and we’ve done an enormous amount of collaboration in that time. We also earned our master’s degrees in Traditional Arts together, which was quite a life-changing experience. David is a Colorado native, but our work together has taken us all over the world. David is an exceptional oil and egg tempera painter, and he also practices stone carving and wood carving, to name only a few. He’s also a sought-after tattoo artist. He’s just an exceptionally brilliant person and my best friend.

Website: https://luminousfluxgallery.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aloriaweaver

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aloriaweaver

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aloria.weaver

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@luminousfluxgallery900

Other: https://skyhillsanctuary.org http://aloriaweaver.com https://vimeo.com/luminousfluxgallery https://www.instagram.com/luminousfluxgallery/ https://www.instagram.com/skyhillsanctuary/

Image Credits
Aloria Weaver David Heskin