Falling in Love

Fluid Dynamics, a burrowing owl, by Dale Weiler

Our Story Begins…

Fate. Falling in love. A broken sculpture, a missed art opening, and a chance encounter. It sounds like a mystery. Hmmm.

We hear so much about “it is meant to be”,  “things always have a way of working out”, and “as one door closes another opens”. In our case, it is all of the above.

Our story begins with one of Dale’s sculptures, Fluid Dynamics. The burrowing owl carving was accepted into The Society of Animal Artist’s exhibit in 2015 at The Roger Tory Peterson Institute.

Unfortunately, or in this case, fortunately,  it was broken while being shipped to the show. A minor catastrophe that could set you back but… With the sculpture out of the show, Dale decided at the last minute not to attend. Ah, this is where fate comes in to play.

And as Fate would have it…

Low and behold, that same weekend Dale’s work was featured in a local art show in our hometown of Tryon. Now that he was free, he decided to attend the opening reception. And as fate would have it, I just happened to stop by to check out the artwork. Falling in love at first sight, the rest is history. We were engaged in 8 days, married in 5 months and are coming up on our 5 year anniversary.

In Guatemala just before our wedding

Falling in love late in life was so unexpected yet so magical and powerful. Both of us had been asking the age-old question “what now” and “what do we do to make a difference?” Since we both loved animals, we were inspired to create Weiler Woods for Wildlife to use Dale’s art to help bring awareness and raise funds for wildlife conservation.

Dale Weiler reworking an owl sculpture

And what happened to the broken sculpture? Dale could have just tried to repair it, but he saw an opportunity to make it even better.

He completely reworked not only the base but the owl itself. The new version is freer, lighter and much improved. Renamed  “A Well Feathered Arrow”, it debuted at a show we helped curate called The Weilers’ Evolution: A Father & Son’s Artistic Journey.

The Opening Reception of Dale’s Show at RTPI

It was Dale’s first show with his late father who was an amazing watercolor sporting art painter. The show was beautiful (of course we are both just a tad biased). And the cool thing?  The venue for the show was at The Roger Tory Peterson Institute. Talk about coming full circle! Back where the original sculpture was broken.

A Well Feathered Arrow by Dale Weiler

Lessons we learned…

What are the lessons learned for us?  Keeping an open mind and an open heart in order to turn a setback into an opportunity works every time. There is always room to improve. In this case the sculpture and our lives. You never know when love might be around the corner as it is never too late to find love and passion in life. Life throws us curveballs. Be prepared to catch them!