Cape Codders ‘Take Heart’

BREWSTER – Two Cape Cod artists, Rachael Skolowski and Suz Karchmer, are breaking the mold and a few hearts with their latest project, “Take Heart: A Cape Cod Love Story.” 

The exhibit, on display at the Brewster Ladies’ Library through Feb. 27, tells a non-traditional love story through a series of photos captured during COVID-19. The subject of the stills? Hearts, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

In 2020 neighbors shut their doors and masked up to battle the COVID-19 virus. Social distancing was in full effect and many Outer Cape residents were finding the lack of connection isolating. 

In April 2020, Truro restaurant Savory and Sweet Escape posted an image online depicting a wooden palette outside a Boston suburb’s police station. The palette featured a painted heart, a symbol of support for healthcare workers during that time. Skolowski and Karchmer believe this was the post that started it all. 

Soon hearts started popping up everywhere in Truro, along Route 6A and outside the town’s own police station. Local teachers at Truro Central School painted their palettes and placed them along the busy roadside. 

Provincetown resident Carol Bergen wanted to continue the momentum of the movement and started placing hearts made out of paint stirrers around her town. 

One afternoon, a phone call brought a coincidence to light for Skolowski and Karchmer. They had both been photographing the hearts, finding in them a source of hope, resilience and connection with their fellow Cape Codders. 

To combat their isolation, they decided to safely start meeting up to photograph the subjects together. Masked up and in separate cars, they found solace in hunting down the symbols that brought them and an entire community together. 

Now, on the five-year anniversary of the project, the photographers are excited to share the results.

While they both have experience with digital cameras, they prefer using an iPhone to capture their surroundings. The exhibit, which features around 45 photos taken with an iPhone, has traveled around the area, showing at different venues. 

Skolowski and Karchmer are in the process of self-publishing a book of their work, which is slated to debut this spring. Skolowski is also an avid documentarian, and with footage captured over the course of the past four years, she plans to create a short documentary of their story. 

Both artists acknowledge the book as the last page in this chapter, but are unsure of where the future will take them. 

Hearts will always hold meaning, but what that meaning is can change rapidly. Skolowski says many attendees of the exhibit have reported a collective amnesia of the pandemic era. The project uproots emotions that were stored away and unprocessed. She hopes capturing this moment in history will help to acknowledge the pain many went through while also showing the strength of a community that found out how to come together in a time of complete isolation.