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Lahaina artist seeks return of missing work-in-progress

By Staff | Aug 22, 2013

Terry Weaver presents a circular mosiac to the then-mayor of Encinatas, California.

LAHAINA – Lahaina artist Terry Weaver is more than a renaissance man; he’s avant-garde.

The Front Street resident is a behind-the-scenes talent of diverse skills.

He’s an architect, custom wood craftsman, watercolorist, musician and composer.

“I am the ‘Mosaic Mon,’ ” he told the Lahaina News.

Ekolu Lindsey, president of Maui Cultural Lands, has known Weaver for 15 years.

Lahaina artist Terry Weaver hopes this work-in-progress will be returned.

“I originally met him as a carpenter and secondly got to know him as an artist,” Lindsey recalled.

“He is the only guy I know that infuses fine art with carpentry. He brings a different dimension when it comes to artistic building. He is very meticulous in his work and will not sacrifice quality for quick economic gain in his art as well as carpentry,” Lindsey added.

So meticulous, in fact, that Weaver is greatly disturbed about the loss of an art piece, a work-in-progress.

He was loading his car in the parking lot behind Dickenson Square on Dickenson Street.

“I put the mosaic behind the back of my car, and I loaded the other side. Then the phone rings… I was distracted,” he explained.

Unpacking his car ten minutes later, he noticed the 20- by 26-inch mosaic was missing and returned to the parking lot.

It was gone, and now he’s offering a $200 reward for its return.

“It was not stolen. It was left behind by the artist by mistake. I think they would be happy to return it,” he said – no questions asked.

The mosaic depicts two sea horses in a blending of a medley of colorful glass marbles and tiles.

It was a custom design for a client, so he’s created another. But he’s very protective of his art; they’re all his treasures.

Weaver’s art is not on display in galleries – not yet – but you might see it in an estate collection, a home on Diamond Head, a condo in Kaanapali or a restaurant in Lahaina, Waikiki or Hanalei, to name a few.

His first job after he graduated as an architect in 1984 was at a water theme park in California.

He’s a transplant from Encinitas, California, where he’s known as the “City Artist.”

Twenty of his mosaic medallions are embedded in the downtown walkways of this picturesque beach town located on Coast Highway 101.

“In 2001,” he advised, “we won the Great American Main Street Award.”

Asked about his preferred medium, he commented, “I am constantly evolving.”

He’s onto a new style, he confided, and is staging a private, by invitation only, showing on Sept. 14 in Lahaina, where he will be unveiling ten new pieces.

He is working with an “LED inventor, water jet guy” and fine artist on a collaborative new art form.

“I am now as an artist blending other people’s pieces into mine,” he described.

“As an architect, we got all the credit for drawing the plans. But guess what? We had a soil’s tech person; we used engineers for the structural and interior designers. People didn’t realize it was a team that made the set of plans,” he said.

“I have become an architect-artist in some ways,” he continued, “because I am architecting everybody else’s stuff coming into mine.”

Kristin Bernardo, owner of Bernardo and Black Fine Art on Luakini Street, is one of Weaver’s colleagues. She is looking forward to the collaboration.

“He’s got a lot of innovative ideas. He is very multitalented. He initially went to school for architecture, so he’s got a very interesting ability to do draftsmen-like work and very meticulous design work and to do very creative artistic work,” she commented.

Weaver contributes his talents to the community as well, Lindsey reminded the Lahaina News.

“He donates his expertise and time with Maui Cultural Lands building our hales. He also helps to build a double-hull canoe with Uhane ‘o Wa’a Kaulua,” he said.

“Terry is a good man who takes pride in the work he does. More importantly, his heart is filled with aloha and malama,” Lindsey added.

Weaver is confident the lost mosaic will be returned.

He can be reached at mosaicmon@gmail.com or (808) 280-6955.