again to Detroit, Michigan, when his older brother Taylor found work there with the Federal Immigration Service. Shaver enrolled in the Wicker School of Fine Art and worked part-time as an art model. At Wicker, he began a relationship with his teacher Sophie Gurvitch. The pair married in Summer 1932, a few weeks after Wicker permanently closed. They would have one daughter. Shaver found work as a gardener and welder.

In 1934, Shaver's older brother Taylor died from pneumonia,