Memoir in Stitches - Lyn Swett Miller
Memoir in Stitches
Lyn Swett Miller
Artist Statement:
My wedding dress sat in its box for thirty two years until we moved to a condo and no longer had an attic where it could hide. Our grown children lived in Boston and DC, but were sad to leave their childhood home; My husband and I were excited for simpler living, but had not fully processed this new stage in our lives. When I hung the dress on a mannequin in my studio it invited me to re-imagine all that it represented. It was January 2025, the year I turned sixty.
Along the hem I embroidered the names of female ancestors, dating back centuries, and flowers that women in my family, including me, loved, like trillium and daffodils. At first, I photographed the dress out in the elements, but somewhere along the line decided to wear it and create self portraits as well.
Together, we played and had adventures. With each stitch and photograph this forgotten object and I deepened our relationship and were transformed. It was like turning the compost pile, aerating what had been dormant. My husband’s and my wedding day, modeled after images seen in my parent’s black and white Bachrach wedding album, was just that - - a day. But our marriage, like the marriages of all those women whose lives made mine possible, is a lifetime filled with grief and gratitude, anger and joy and so much more. A fairy tale wedding day and dress have nothing to do with the reality of cultivating a resilient and lasting life together.
The act of creating this ‘memoir in stitches’ and wearing it throughout the seasons enabled me to begin processing the confusing messages a woman receives about marriage, family and self. The dress and I remain works in progress as we rediscover the joy embodied in a full life.
Lyn Swett Miller is a Vermont-based photographer and speaker whose work explores curiosity, compost, and connection as forces for renewal. Miller’s photographs invite reflection and conversation about transformation and care. An active participant with Kinship since 2023, she has guided numerous practice groups exploring loss and grief and the power of objects as portals to memory and meaning. Miller explores these ideas and more on her weekly Substack, 13 Tons of Love.
You can also learn more about her at lynswettmiller.com or on Substack @lynswettmiller
