Mark Christopher Weber was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1949 and
                          grew up in towns in Ohio, Missouri, California and Arkansas.  He earned a
                          Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas where he studied
                          painting under Donald Roller Wilson and sculpture under Robert Sweeny.
                          After his graduation in 1972, he began his career as a professional freelance
                          painter.  Since 1973 he has lived and worked in Kansas City, Missouri.
                          Artists who have influenced Weber's work include Vermeer, Rembrandt,
                          Caravaggio, Frederick Church, Thomas Moran, Georges de la Tour, William
                          Harnett and Canaletto.

                                                 Mark writes the following about himself:

                                    I've always found it very satisfying and exciting to create images and
                          objects with my hands.  Throughout childhood I enjoyed working with the
                          usual children's art materials, especially modeling with clay and drawing
                          cartoons.  Despite my keen interest in art, any thought of taking formal art
                          training was squelched for a number of years when I nearly flunked an art
                          class in junior high.  I was so distressed by the experience that I vowed to
                          never take another art class.

                                      In spite of my continuing interest in doing art, I stuck with my vow
                          and studied journalism in college.  However, I drew and sculpted for
                          recreation.  I began to copy old masters' drawings and in this manner learned
                          how they used line, cross-hatching and shading to develop form and
                          expression.  Then I began doing my own renderings of photos that interested
                          me.

                                       As I continued, I discovered that I had a deep attachment to art.  At
                          the same time, I was learning that journalism was not my cup of tea.  The
                          summer between my sophomore and junior year I worked as an intern on a
                          large southern California newspaper.  After that experience I was sure I
                          wanted to be an artist rather than a reporter.

                                        By then I was willing to risk art classes again and took life drawing,
                          sculpture and painting.  My initial interest was in sculpture, and I only took
                          painting out of curiosity.  But once I began working with oils, I was
                          enchanted.  Roller Wilson, my painting instructor, is a master of
                          representational painting and excellent in teaching the basics of oil
                          technique.  I now paint primarily in oils, but use acrylics from time to time.

                                         As  I discovered my talent in painting and developed my skill, I
                           gradually gave more emphasis to it than to sculpture.  From the very
                           beginning the thing that fascinated me most was the quality of light:  how it
                           falls on objects and reveals their form and how it can be used to revel the
                           character and heart of people.

                                         College was also a time of personal change for me.  When I began
                            in 1968, I was an atheist.  But, as a result of my studies in biology,
                            representational painting, and history (one of my on-going interests) I
                            found my "faith" challenged.  In biology I discovered the incredible
                            complexity of living organisms.  Through realistic painting I learned new
                            and analytical ways of seeing things, and saw in a new way how intricate
                            and unified the physical world is.  It is far more wonderful than anything that
                            could be accounted for by the chance mechanisms of evolution.  I had to
                            abandon my atheism and conclude there must be some sort of intelligent
                            force responsible for the existence and structure of the universe.  Around the
                            same time I was learning from history that human beings have a deeply
                            rooted propensity for destructive, evil and foolish behavior which seems to
                            be constant regardless of culture, race or level of civilization.  It became
                            evident to me that our human plight was so desperate that we needed the
                            help of the universe's Creator, although I had no idea who that might be.

                                          Shortly after my graduation in 1972 I had a person-to-person
                            encounter with Jesus the Messiah and became a Christian.  Since then I've
                            sought to bring all aspects of my life, including my art work, into conformity
                            with the teaching of the Bible and the Lord's ongoing dealings with me.  I
                            have ended up painting mostly landscapes and the human figure and face.  In
                            landscapes I am able to share my experience of God's power and majesty in
                            creation.  In the paintings of people I can delve into the joys, pains and
                           frailties of human life, as well as God's love for us and His ability to redeem.

                                           In 1979 I married Randi, a woman whose spiritual understanding
                           and direction matched my own.  One of those directions was to be available
                           to give suffering people a helping hand.  That motivated us to buy a large, old,
                           run down house in an inner city neighborhood.  As we had opportunity, we
                           invited various homeless people in to live with us until they could take care of
                           their next step.  These included people from our own community as well as
                           people who had escaped to America from war torn countries.  As we had
                           resources and time we gradually rehabbed the house and soon filled it with
                           five children of our own.  As our children grew older, we focused most of
                           our time and energy on our own family.  Of course I kept painting, sending
                           my work off to galleries in the Southwest where they were well received and
                           provided a living for my family.

                                             In 2004, as our last child turned 18, Randi and I began listening   
                           for new spiritual direction for this new season of our lives.  I am looking 
                           forward to more opportunity to focus on my art career, and want to start
                           teaching to pass on my knowledge to the next generation.

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