Popular Iowa City artist dies at age 81

A popular Iowa City artist known throughout the community and in art circles across the Midwest for his ability to encase just about anything – from animal skulls to tricycles – with intricate bead work died Friday morning at the age of 81.

Thomas “Tom” Wegman died at home from a combination of respiratory and cardiac problems, according to his wife, Kathy Wegman. Between Things & Things & Things, the store he owned with his former wife in downtown Iowa City for years, and his popular beaded masterpieces that followed, Wegman made a lasting mark on this town, his wife said.

And Wegman's artistic endeavors did just as much for him as it did for others, Kathy Wegman said.

“I think it's one thing that kept him going,” she said.

Tom Wegman got his start in the unique art form after a motorcycle accident in 1986 left him with a spinal cord injury that paralyzed him from the chest down. At age 56, his wife said, the injury forced him into early retirement until one day he found an image of a taxidermist-stuffed deer head covered in beads.

“That inspired him, I guess,” Kathy Wegman said. “And it took off from there.”

With his arms working just fine, Wegman said, her husband began collecting all sorts of things to “bead.” Animal skulls, antique cameras, phones, roller skates and pencil sharpeners started piling up on the kitchen counter, she said.

Before long, Tom Wegman started presenting his artwork at local galleries in Iowa City and Marion, and he eventually began showing and selling at art exhibits. Kathy Wegman, who started helping her husband and eventually began doing her own pieces alongside him, said they started in smaller venues and worked their way up with more experience and a growing reputation.

“There are some things we have done that have been pretty unique,” she said.

The couple twice has presented at the Smithsonian, the world's largest museum and research complex in Washington D.C. And Tom Wegman in 2007 made a Christmas ornament that hung on the White House Christmas tree.

Kathty Wegman said her husband was resilient and determined, as demonstrated by his success after being paralyzed.

“He didn't let that stop him from going to art shows,” she said. “It didn't stop him from making art work.”

The couple was scheduled to host a booth at an art exposition in Illinois on Aug. 24, 25 and 26, and Wegman said she still plans to attend and bring some of the last pieces her husband created.