While Pennsylvania Dutch aesthetics have deep historical roots, Buckwalter is among many contemporary women artists finding inspiration in its culture. Becky Suss, Rebecca Morgan, and Sarah McEneaney have all adopted formal qualities and imagery from the region. Meanwhile, rising painter Samantha Joy Groff takes a more direct, even anthropological approach by painting the contemporary women of Pennsylvania Dutch culture in her nocturnal, rural tableaux.
These artists share geographic and cultural ties to the region. They use its visual language to explore domesticity, sexuality, women’s work, and the nuances of cultural pride and shame
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Artist Rebecca Morgan, who is best known for hyper-detailed, humorous paintings and ceramics about rural Appalachian life and stereotypes, has also embraced Pennsylvania Dutch aesthetics as an emblem of local pride. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, she often saw hex signs decorating local houses, barns, and sheds. “I always knew them as a ‘Pennsylvania Charm’ to give good luck, or to protect,” she said. “As a child, seeing a hex sign felt specific to my region of Pennsylvania. You didn’t see them in any other scenario other than the Pennsylvania radius, so it was a symbolic emblem of home.” A decade ago, the artist created a series of paintings with the motif. One work, a self-portrait she calls Pennsylvania Princess (year), features the artist wearing a mountain-laurel crown (Pennsylvania’s state flower) and a chest plate featuring a family hex sign that suggests a crest or superhero emblem. “I have always kept this unfinished painting with me because of its sincerity,” she said. A new body of her work is currently on view in “Painting in the Apocalypse” at Asya Geisberg.