Learning to appreciate and admire our own culture is sometimes a tad bit overlooked by most, as is the essence of a weather vane. Life among the garden plants, vases, flowers, trees and birds at home sometimes also goes overlooked by those who are too busy to remember how far we have come as a civilization. Weathervanes are like instant memories. With some weathervane the sound of changing wind will be an immediate reminder of our culture and heritage, with others the mere sight will invoke past experiences and pleasant memories. Art can change society if it wants to or even bring inspiration and insight. The most traditional of American modern arts in the home and garden, is the weather vane. From the oldest documented colonial weathervane of Deacon Shem Drowne in the 18th century with his most famous Grasshopper weathervane that sits upon Faneuil Hall in Boston to the present day, weathervane sculptures have shaped American modern art.
Weathervane and American Modern Art
When we think of American modern art, most people tend to think of paintings and sculptures that sit in galleries and art museums. Weathervane are some of the most traditional works of American sculpture art because they have told the direction of the wind on the tops of houses, fences and barns for hundreds of years and represented important elements in our history. They are made by hand and no two can be exactly the same. Each weather vane is in and of itself a work of human expression, crafted by the hands of an artesian who takes their work seriously and with great passion. Old North Church (1740, Boston), First Church in Cambridge (1721), Province House (1716, Boston), Goddess of Liberty, the Federal Eagle and many famous race horses have all been immortalized by the sculpture of weathervane and banners upon the highest tops.
Weathervane Give The Direction of The Wind and Feed Imagination.
The compass rose is held firmly on a weather vane and will always show the direction of north. The weather vane itself will always point in the direction from which the wind originates. The movement of wind and air is physically the disbursing of energy that has picked up speed and travels through the sky abiding the laws of the cosmos. Indicating in a subtle way, what the skies are about to do. Wind may normally tend to stand idle without a weather vane, but it is always doing something, even if it is absent. Metalworkers and historians alike have been enchanted by the fascinating beauty of weathervane and those delicate “cathartic” moments they captivate in our hearts. Curving and spinning like a dancer, the weather vane fuels our human imagination with its beauty and becomes our link to the sky.
Art In Home and Garden Inspires Peace and Contemplation
This deep and intricate realm of American modern art can be most appreciated in the delicate things. Home and Garden is a place where that kind of traditional hand made art restores the splendor of the subtle and peaceful. “Home is where the heart is.” And through the art of weathervane our expressions of self and family become most attuned to the sky, wind and land that we call home. The weather vane inspires peace and contemplation wherever it stands. Mythical creatures, farm animals, creatures of the sea, sailboats, airplanes, national prides; creative works of an artistic imagination that follow the moving patterns of the wind, a wind that only sleeps at the calm of the storm. And in those moments the weather vane asks a question, where is the wind?