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NV artist revives interest in weather vanes

ROD CAMERON'S work is
all in vane. Weather vanic.

By Evelyn Jacob
News Reporter

Shiny brass birds with polished
copper wings, majestic galloping
Arabs, delicate marine creatures
inlaid with transsucent stained
glass, a Buddhist sun symbol —
the weather vane is enjoying a
revival in North America and ar-
tists like North Vancouver's
Cameron arc leading the way.

Created from man’s desire to
predict the most transitory of
Ratural forces — the wind — the
weather vane has enjoyed a long
and colorful history.

The first vane, believed to have
been built in 48 BC by Greek
astronomer Andronikos Kyr-
thestes of Kyrrhos, was probably
one of the world’s first meteor-
ological instruments.

During the ninth century, the
weathercock — the classic sym-
bol — was mounted on nearly
every churchtop in Uurope by
order of a papal decree. It refer-
red to Christ’s words to Peter on
the eve of the crucifixion: ‘‘! tell
you Peter, the cock will not crow
this day, until you three times
deny that you know me’’ (Luke
22:34).

Thomas Jefferson was sup-
posedly the first American to
make use of a wind indicator, one
of the earliest forms of sculpture
in the newly founded America.

Shem Drowne’s. spectacular
copper and glass green-eyed
grasshopper, on Faneuil Hall in
Boston, is regarded as the world’s
most famous weather vane. ,

Pa en

ange? 5

NEWS pholo Mike Waketleld

ROD CAMERON at work at home with one of his hand-crafted weathervanes. Cameron based the
copper-winged brass raven on a Tlingit design.

But by the time the Industrial
Revolution rolled around in the
mid-19th century, it no longer
made cconomic sense to produce
vanes by hand and the one-of-

4 a-kind devices slowly disappeared.
Since the early 1920s, however,
the weather vane has come to be
appreciated as not merely a craft

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but a work of art in its own
right. And Cameron, a painter
and shipyard worker by trade, is
helping revive the art of
custom-made silhouette-style
weather vanes.

From his Lower
home, he works on several at a
time, using template pieces, sheets

Lonsdale’

of brass and a high-powered sabre
saw, Each vane will eventually be
signed and dated.

Cameron goes to great lengths
to reserrch his designs and is more
than willing to work with custorn-
ers to create a specific look.

One client, for instance, wanted
an image of a little boy flying a

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&4& The images
themselves sit on a
single ball bearing so
the wind can move
them with ease. #9

kite. Another wanted a ‘“‘rude’’
weather vane, the first and only
commission Cameron has refused.

He built his first vane from
steel and fibreglass in the ’60s at
the University of Saskatchewan,
while completing a fine arts
degree. But Cameron's fascination
with the wind-blowing devices
began long before then.

“When 1 was a kid in Saskat-
chewan I used to get dragged off
to church. The thing I liked about
the church was the weather vane
on the steeple ~- I always wanted
to get up there and at it,” he
recalls. ‘*1 remember it being very
ornate: wrought iron inlaid with a
piece of diamond-shaped stained
glass. That began a lifelong love
affair with weather vanes.’

In 1980 he and a friend decided
to open a shop in Vancouver
devoted exclusively to weather
vane-making. The response?
“One big yawn,'’ according to
Cameron. But that all changed
when North Vancouver’s Payne
Hardware asked him to exhibit his

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