The Sundance Wives will not hear of dead windmills lost behind or broken wagon wheels. Count the spokes. Twelve (12). One for each sign of the Zodiac. For them, the West has not vanished. Aspen, Colorado, where the elite reside, but also where the West is embedded in fine art in Aspen. Photographs taken by Sage Sweetwater in Aspen, Colorado, The Sundance Wives are inspired by the iron sculptures and their maker, the unknown artist. There is a preservation of the Old West in these iron sculptures.
The Sundance Wives, each one a baby boomer born between 1946 and 1964, have learned it all from scratch, by living it through farm and ranch, from education in environmental "range law" and from watching old black and white westerns, Annie Oakley starring Barbara Stanwyck, who was lesbian, and colorized versions after that.
The Sundance Wives ride a borderless territory on open range. The Sundance Wives, in legend revive communal lifestyles and worship freely. Their skills don't automatically come with boots and hat. Their dedication to individual creativity is why their spirit endures. As testament to that statement, Mother Earth renews and inspires their creativity. It pours through alchemy and the apothecary in wormwood based religion that is filled to the brim with good intentions from the steer horn they drink from. The sight of a pasture beside an old country road where the Amish and Mennonite wagons roll in modern day brings back simplicity, and the land harbors a place to worship freely and create handcrafted art. We see it in Ute Indian country alive with mists of legend.
What this arrangement of The Sundance Wives is, is a self-selection time-honored tradition of which community art can be made through writing, film and art. It would be hard to compete against these women. The Sundance Wives have the compulsory lasso of creativity it takes to make it, and without apology, they throw a pretty big loop catching all that is theirs. Lesbian western marketing is alive! Is this lifestyle more ego-litarian than most? You bet! You've got to have the grit for it and the self-love. In their environs, the winds blow harsh, but then so do The Sundance Wives, they've learned, when they need to rid toxic air. In each one of them, you see a beautiful reflection of the other in Maroon Bells Lake in Aspen, Colorado.
Copyright 2009 Ms. Sage Sweetwater, Celebrity Firebrand Lesbian Novelist
This line, especially, sends chills to my core. Per linear time, I am late visiting The Sundance Wives website. For my appreciation of your message, it is perfect timing. Sage, your photo of Maroon Bells Lake is spectacular. ~leslie