Dawn Weimer Biography

At the age of seven Dawn (Griswold) Weimer announced to her parents she was going to be an artist and have horses when she grew up. The dream of horses became a reality when she married her high school sweetheart, Tom Weimer, who owned several registered Quarter horses. Together they were involved in rodeo and training horses while Dawn also spent 15 years as a paralegal. Dawn's obvious "art education" came unconventionally on horseback. Twenty years of raising and training registered Quarter Horses equipped her with an incredible understanding of horse anatomy and behavior. She feels that translated into a greater knowledge of animal anatomy and behavior in general.

Upon leaving the paralegal field, she found time to again pursue the rest of her dream and she began painting; being commissioned for many years for animal portraiture. "One particular day, I caught myself flipping over a photograph to see the opposite side of a dog I was painting for commission. I felt so foolish", she laughs, "but it was then I realized I was seeking more...the third dimension." This seemingly unconscious event opened the field of sculpture to Dawn; she produced her first bronze in 1991 and hasn’t picked up a paint brush since.

Dawn's style is realistic, yet expressive, maintaining exceptional integrity and quality in every sculpture. Exhibiting intense sensitivity to "touching the spirit" she immortalizes her subjects in the forever medium of bronze. Every detail of each casting has her explicit attention to conform to her strict standards and assure complete satisfaction to the most discriminating collector.

Developing a reputation for sculpting classical animal and figurative limited edition bronze sculpture, her work has won numerous awards and is in private, corporate and museum collections throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. In a short period of time, Dawn Weimer has completed several monumental bronze sculptures, which puts her among the few elite women sculptors who have become known for their talents in monumental bronze sculpture. She has placed 50 life-size/monumental installations throughout the US.

Her work is installed in several municipal, corporate, and public art sites including the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO; City of Greeley, CO; City of Westminster, CO; City of Fort Collins, CO; City of Fort Morgan, CO; The Hotel Savery, Des Moines, IA; Loveland Good Samaritan Village, Loveland, CO; Morgan County Community College, Fort Morgan, CO; Mountain View High School, Loveland, CO; Fort Morgan Museum, Fort Morgan, CO; Good Samaritan Village, Fort Collins, CO; and the American Quarter Horse Museum, Amarillo, TX. Dawn's work has been featured in Wildlife Art, Southwest Art, Art of the West, Equine Image, Western Horseman, Canine Images, Art Revue, Horse & Rider and on the covers of North American Horsemen's Yearbook and Chronicle of the Horse. She was designated as the 1996 Equine Artist of Distinction by the North American Horsemen's Association. Dawn's biography is featured in "Women to Remember of Northern Colorado", and her creation of Annie the Railroad Dog is included in the book "Unforgettable Mutts". Her work is included in The Sculpture Reference, consisting of 512 pages and 1187 full color images written by noted author and sculptor, Arthur Williams. She was also included in the 2009 edition of the book called "Sculpture of the Rockies" put out by Southwest Art containing just 97 different sculptors located in the Rocky Mountains.  She has installed a monumental Bear for University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO, A monumental Ram for Colorado State University, and a monumental Horse at the Larimer County Fairgrounds in Loveland, CO. She has sculpted a nine foot high x 16 foot long Buffalo for the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO and it is on her trailer waiting to be installed at CU. She has also sculpted two 4 times lifesize Rams in battle called Rocky Mountain Rumble, a  21 foot long bronze Monument  for Colorado State University's football stadium which will be installed in 2012.

Dawn's work is available through her studios in Loveland, CO and her website at www.dawnweimer.com.   In her short 15 year career she has 40 permanent public installations of lifesize or larger Bronzes from CA to NY with 25 of these in her home state of Colorado alone...she is the only US sculptor to have ever sculpted all of the sculptor's home state major universities (in this case 3) mascots in Monumental size AND funded all of them thru replica sales so that there was NO COST to the universities or taxpayers!