Nancy Wiechman and her husband, Bob, were driving to their son’s house just before construction began on the new Wichita Presbyterian Manor nearby. The route also takes them past the former home of Bob’s sister and her husband.
On this trip, the Wiechmans discovered the old house had been demolished to make way for the new buildings. Part of the old metal shed was still standing – barely – and there was a pile of scrap wood. Nancy took a piece of wood she liked, then came back later to salvage some of the tin from the shed. “I didn’t have a bag or anything. I just took a few pieces,” she said. “I knew I could do something with it.”
The result was a mixed-media portrait of a Native American. Nancy created the image out of rusted, twisted chunks of tin, then glued the pieces onto a painted canvas. “American Indian Profile” was recently named a winner at the masterpiece level of the annual Art is Ageless juried competition.
Works by local winners are automatically entered into a competition with winning art from 16 other Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America communities. The winners are featured in the Art is Ageless calendar and notecards.
Ever since she was a girl growing up in Riverside, Nancy said she has been an artist, like her father. She never had any formal training, but she went on to sell many of her pieces.
Today, though, Nancy said she prefers to make gifts of her art. In fact, she had enough pieces of tin from the shed that she used them to make mementos for their nieces who had grown up at the house. “I made a small canvas with a modern look to it, and I wrote on the back where it came from,” she said.