Swartout was afforded the opportunity to
assist in the restoration of a 1890’s Queen
Anne Victorian home in Eugene, Oregon, a
project which extended over five years. Guided by a professor of Architectural Science
and another of the Fundamentals of Historic
Preservation from the University of Oregon,
Swartout was imparted with a vast amount of
knowledge, regarding not merely restorative
techniques and methods, but also principles
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and details specific to that era. And as one
can imagine, working for years restoring
and recreating architectural elements from a
very particular time period and style would
immensely influence an artist’s aesthetics.
He feels a deep spiritual connection to
the Southwest United States, the cultures
that exists there now and the cultures that
have been there for thousands of years. He
believes in the simplicity of the architecture
native to the region; mud brick, straw, and
adobe. The ancient Puebloans native to
the Southwest have used similar materials
for hundreds of years and had a belief that
their structures, built from stone, wood, and
mud plaster, would one day return to the
earth. Swartout is also a proponent for green
construction, building with renewable and
sustainable materials, such as strawbale