Discovering Vermont’s essence in search for peace signs

For the past year, Shawn Dumont and his kids Zoë (9) and Jasper (5) have been on a quest.

Rather than seeking a grail, they’ve been crisscrossing Vermont in pursuit of peace signs to photograph. And they have found the Green Mountain State to be unique among U.S. states in having a plethora of peace signs.

Many of the peace signs the three explorers have found and photographed were on barns, but they’ve also found them on houses, sheds, other buildings, peace signs on signs and mowed into a field.

The result of their efforts has been a book, “Peace Signs of Vermont: The Visual Legacy of the Back-to-the-Land Movement,” and an exhibition of their photographs at the Karma Bird House at 47 Maple Street in Burlington. The show runs 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Monday-Saturday, through Aug. 29. There will be an opening reception and screen-printing workshop this Thursday, July 10, 6-9 p.m.

Last summer, Shawn Dumont and his children set off on Saturdays, driving to different areas of Vermont with their eyes wide open and alert for any peace signs.

Shawn and his wife Ali Dumont had recently moved to Prindle Road in Charlotte. They had lived in Burlington for a number of years and were seeking a quieter lifestyle. Shawn was head of graphic design for Burton Snowboards for about 10 years, and decided to go freelance, so he can pick projects he wants to work on, like a book about Vermont peace signs.

Zoë will be in the fourth grade at Charlotte Central School this fall and Jasper is entering kindergarten.

Zoë has become the official ambassador of the group. When they’ve found a promising example of a peace sign, the 9-year-old walks up to the house, knocks on the door and says, “Hi. My name is Zoë. We’re taking pictures of peace signs. Do you mind if we take a picture of your peace sign?”

That simple introduction has resulted in all sorts of positive engagement for the three of them “and just an opportunity to engage with a stranger in a really cool way that I don’t think you can do in a lot of places,” Shawn said.

These experiences have made Zoë more confident in talking with new people, her father said.

They haven’t been so obsessed with finding peace signs to photograph that they’ve forgotten the other necessities of Vermont summers — creemees and swimming holes.

And the homes where they stop have proved to be wonderful sources of information about where the best local swimming holes and creemee stands are. In addition, the farms have also often had or knew where to find great local breads or other foodstuffs to purchase for picnic lunches on the banks of swimming holes.

Zoë said the people they meet when stopping to photograph also have often had animals, a big plus for the kids. Like once the woman who answered the door had a bunch of baby chicks for them to meet.

Jasper said his favorite peace sign is on a barn in Hinesburg that all of the horses came out of and stared at them while they took a photograph.

Part of what motivated Shawn Dumont was a curiosity about the back-to-the-land movement of the late 60s or early 70s that brought so many young people to Vermont, looking for another lifestyle than a corporate career in a large city. The back-to-the-land movement inspired the founding of so many co-ops and other nonprofit health and mental health organizations here.

On their adventures, he and his children heard so many “amazing stories about these folks who are old back-to-the-landers or young folks who came up to Vermont because of the culture.”

“The peace sign is this incredible symbol that means that the person who made it is made of a certain stuff. They have a certain belief system. They believe in community. They believe in kindness,” Shawn said.

On their drives out of state in New York, New Hampshire or Maine, they didn’t find peace signs, he said. When driving back home, “we didn’t see a peace sign until we crossed the border.”

Shawn Dumont said he has come to believe that the peace sign is a perfect representation of the Vermont state motto: freedom and unity.

He asks that people share their peace sign photos with him.