Andrea Mulkins Weir

She was born to John Davidson and Dorothy Mulkins in Astoria, OR, on September 29th, 1945. Granddaughter to beloved bar pilot on the Columbia River, she loved the Pacific Northwest. She lived throughout Oregon, growing up with her two siblings, Chuck and Kathy. Her mother settled in The Dalles, OR. She graduated from The Dalles Senior High school before attending the Museum School in Portland, OR. Andrea dropped out after hitchhiking to San Francisco for a weekend. Her hippy lifestyle took her wherever she could make, see, or experience art. She met her first love in Haight-Ashbury, James Wetzel, and had a son. She spent several years traveling the US, Europe, and Morocco. Paths diverged and devout pedestrian Andrea and her son Jeremy made their way back west. Honorable mentions include Woodstock with a three-year-old, singing in cafes with an autoharp, and settling in Menorca, Spain.

After a brief marriage to Jerry Hutt, she and Jeremy found themselves in Colorado. At Metropolitan State University she met her future husband, Sven Weir. She apprenticed with glass artists in the Denver area, learning to glass paint, including renown Watkins Stained Glass Studio. From old department stores to New Core Artspace, Andrea experimented with upcycled frames, built papier-mâché figures that towered over her, and painted glass moments that could comment on the state of the world, while making you fall in love, all while chuckling over the absurdity of it all.

Sven and Andrea married August 1980. They stayed in Denver for about another decade and had two children Julianna and Aleksandrs. Andrea dreamed about the Northwest, and in 1991, she and the family moved to Ocean Park, WA. They converted an old boat barn into her dream studio, thus ‘Weir Studios’ was born. Her stained glass can be seen as far as Denver at the University Club, to the Pioneer Presbyterian Church in Warrenton, OR. Smaller works and commissions can be found in windows throughout the Northwest. Her pride and joy is home in Ocean Park, WA, at the United Methodist Church. There, she worked with the congregation to design and craft this window as a testament of ‘love and gratitude’ to the community that helped her and her family through her first bout of breast cancer. Her work with glass did not stop there, she kept honing her craft with fused bowls and glass pendants. Jewelry work became a true passion, with Andrea and Sven packing up the van and travelling around the country selling pendants, small works of her art that could be worn close to the heart.

In 2021, she moved to Portland, OR, with Sven to be close to their now grown children. After Sven passed away, she spent her final years reading everything in sight, attending life drawing sessions, and reconnecting with oil painting in her studio at home. Surrounded by family, she left this world, larger than life.

She is survived by her children: son, Jeremy Wetzel; daughter, Julianna A.B. Roberts; and son; Aleks Weir; two grandchildren, Jonathan Wetzel and Gracelyn Weir; siblings, brother, Chuck Mulkins and sister Kathy McCleary.

Her ashes will be entombed at Willamette National Cemetery with her husband Sven.