The Good Life

I wanted to use patterns and bright colors because my Kenyan artist friends used them, but I wanted to use them in more realistic manner than they do. They tend to paint symbolic statements. Ironically, it turned out that much of this painting is also symbolic. The couple had grown relatively weathy through sale of their land to make bricks, so the wife is very fat with a bright dress. The husband is wearing his best as well. The are laughing because when I saw this scene I ran up an embankment to photograph them. I must have looked funny. You can also see that they are wealthy because they have a cow and a steel roof on their house. They also have a large crop of bananas. Incidentally, these banana patches are where people though out their organic trash. The patterns show what I observed of the lives of rural Kenyans I met. They live traditionally, in patterns of events. It seemed like they live in a basket woven by the sun as it comes up and courses through the sky. I put one of the suns behind the woman's head like a madonna to show that she is blessed. The name for the painting comes from a Kenyan artist friend who saw it and exclaimed, "Ah the good life!"

If you want some meaning beyond that, it seems to say that if you can't work because of a problem like his turned foot, be creative to think of something you can sell. Who would have thought that you could sell the very dirt you are standing on!