Category: Being Real

Mixing it Up & Moving On

12/31/2020

Pam's Pressed Leaves, 2020 Photo by ERSwett

Pressed
leaves - - so
easy to collect &
so simple to
compost.

Pam's National Geographic Collection, 2020 Photo by ERSwett

National
Geographic, not
so much. Each year, eleven
pounds of images from around the world.
But last week, it was time for this collection of stories
and images to move on, to mix and mingle
with holiday wrappings and
old bills.

Photographing the Photographs, 2020 Photo by ERSwett

Our
children
did not plow
through them, as I
once did, and no library
wanted them. This 450 pound
collection was, in fact, a
burden from
another
era.

Goodbye, 2020 Photo by ERSwett

When
I returned from
the recycling center, I was
not surprised to experience an increased
flow of fresh air in my studio - -
The shelves, lighter and
more open, an
invitation.

Bread & The Rhyming Dictionary, 2020 Photo by ERSwett

We
were managing
the clutter we brought
home from my mother-in-law's
house, which we had cleared out three
years ago. It was time to say farewell to her pressed
leaves, National Geographics and her
dog-eared rhyming
dictionary.

The Rhyming Dictionary & How to Build a Better Vocabulary, 2020 Photo by ERSwett

The
compost
absorbed all
of it, including the
expectations of creating
the perfect turn of phrase in a
gift card, thank you letter or speech
at the garden club. In our pile, the leaves
& this book will nourish new growth
in a new year & maybe even
inspire new ways of
thinking post
2020.

Composting Expectations, 2020 Photo by ERSwett

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The Power of Black Boots

11/14/2020

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I believed
& it was true. Wear
a pair of black leather boots &
you, too, will feel powerful & confident.
It's been five years since I first purchased these on
consignment, polished them up and
faked it till I made it. They
worked their
magic.

After
wearing them
a few times, I started to
actually believe in my power - -
not in a dominating way, but in a deep
visceral kind of way that flowed from my fascia
and radiated outward. These boots
lead me to the edge of
my known
world....

If I
step off
the path, I might
harm this ecosystem, but
if I stay on it, I may never come to
understand it. What if it's not even a binary
question. Maybe it's about stance
and learning to tread
more lightly.

And
maybe there
is more power in a
backward glance made with
curiosity, wonder & the core of who
I am, than there is in a pair of
boots & a projection of
false confidence.

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If You Can, Do

10/30/2020

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Black Boots on Wood, Sharon, VT Fall 2020 Photo by ERSwett

Sometimes
a gal has to shake things
up a bit.

Embroidered Moccasins by Sarah C. Swett sometime in the 1980's. Photo by ERSwett

If, for
example, she
can't actually walk in
other people's shoes, she can
at least experiment with wearing her
own in new & different places.
Or, perhaps, not wear
any at all.

Barefoot in Fall Self Portrait, October 2020

It turns
out, for example,
that feeling cold wet leaves
beneath your toes while staring at
your camera is quite
luxurious.

Self Portrait at The Land, October 2020 Photo by ERSwett

I've
been needing
these experiences this past
week, because while those in power
continue to belittle women's voices, & the
voices of those without power, I
struggle to find
mine.

The Dress - Blowing in the Wind, October 2020 Photo by ERSwett

The dress,
like so many past
beliefs is gone, blowing
in the wind, beautiful but not
useful anymore.

Reclining on a Wood Pile - Self Portrait October 2020

And I
recline on a
wood pile, wearing
those cool black boots from
The Pink Alligator & a black shirt
dress from Revolution.
It all feels quite
liberating...

Hydrangea at The Landfill, October 2020 Photo by ERSwett

Each
step in my
own shoes brings
me closer to what I love --
finding balance & power at the landfill
& in my compost pile, each photograph transforming
the discord & pain I feel in the world
around me into something
else entirely.

Now
the demitasse,
filled with coffee, sits on
the coffee grinds from which it came,
connected and real. In times
like this, it helps to
stay real.

Self Portrait with Panels, Fall 2020 Photo by ERSwett

And then
I remembered
how powerful I felt
when we first installed our
solar panels in 2010. For less than
the cost of most new cars, we could actually
generate power - - 56,000 Kwh to date, in fact. So
I created this self portrait, wearing those
same black boots & holding a mug
of coffee made by a good
friend. This
is real.

2020 Ballot Photo by ERSwett

And
this is real
too. So after the
photo shoot at the panels,
I filled in my ballot & delivered it
to Town Hall, feeling very very powerful.
I hope that on November 3, 2020 you will vote
as if your life & the lives of your children's
children's great grandchildren
depended on it.

Self Portrait - - As a Tree, October 2020

Because
here's the deal.
If you can, do. If you
believe in your power, you
can generate power, not just with
solar panels and your vote, but with the
very core of who you are. I'm a mover & maker,
so I learned to embroider so that I could
share Whitman's poem, This
Compost, and the oh
so powerful final
stanza...

This Compost on a Jacket - - Self Portrait, October 2020

Now I am terrified at the earth, it is that calm and patient,
It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions,
It turns harmless and stainless on its axis,
with such endless successions of diseased waste,
It distills such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor,
It renews with such unwitting looks its prodigal, annual, sumptuous crops,
It gives such divine materials and accepts such leavings from [us all].

-Walt Whitman, This Compost (From Leaves of Grass)

The Connecticut River at Dawn, September 2005 Photo by ERSwett

Renewal
is the operative
word. Like all this stuff
about demitasse & cotillion dresses
& going deeper into who we are & what we
believe. It's so much easier to
explore when feeling
powerful.