Red Gloves & Ice Box

Bid for this painting on Ebay!

This Amish lad was on his way home from school, carrying his lunchbox - an icebox from Walmart. The megastore is actually a really common place to see Amish people, and I'm not sure how that fits in with the whole 'shunning of modern life' ideology. Anyway, it makes for a bizarre vision of culture clashes seeing kids wandering around the ultra modern brightly lit store wearing big hats. home-made clothes and massive wellies. I have a hard time not gawking, as I'm sure many outsiders do. I want to be respectful, but at the same time I'm so curious and drawn to them - as an artist the uniqueness of the situation is tantalisingly inspiring.

I have a book called 'Among the Amish' by the Welsh artist Kieth Bowen, and it's amazing. He spent a few summers working with an Amish community and they allowed him to paint them in their most intimate lives. I'd like to try that sometime - but our visits to the East coast are so brief....maybe one day.