Video performance

Inspired by a prophecy of the Cree Indians: "When the last tree is cut down, the last fish ate and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money."

Readings:

"However, advertising is not only about retail sales. It is a form of communication that reaches millions of people and promulgates shared values. Advertisements create communities of like-minded individuals. "

-quote The Art of Self Invention chapter 4 by Joanne Finkelstein

Not only does advertisement push a sale but it also gives the audience an agenda. It reaches millions on social media and on many different platforms on the internet.

"Part of Theodor Adorno’s mordant conclusion about twentieth-century consumer culture is that it changed human nature. We no longer have a reliable sense of our self and thus find it difficult to separate ourselves from our material circumstances."

-quote The Art of Self Invention chapter 4 by Joanne Finkelstein

We not only buy a product but buy the image that goes along with having a certain product. For example, a woman sees an ad of another woman model holding a Michael kors bag and so she desires it. Eventually, she buys it and thinks to herself that she might even resemble the model she saw in the ad. Its quite interesting how we always place ourselves in any situation. 

"Being able to read the surface for insights into the interior, and becoming adept at constructing surface appearances through the control of detail, are processes fundamental to contemporary social relations."

-quote The Art of Self Invention chapter 5 by Joanne Finkelstein

If you look the part, you are in. We dress to impress. There are many sayings or phrases that go along these lines because it's well known if you look acceptable then you can make it in society. 

"Fashion is also a process that transforms the mundane activities of everyday life into more elaborate and complex aesthetic experiences by altering the emotional investment surrounding the display."

-quote The Art of Self Invention chapter 5 by Joanne Finkelstein

Its like dressing up as a kid or in Halloween however more serious. I'm not sure if fashion really transforms into an exciting experience but rather for me at least it's very tedious. there are too many changing trends and styles to even try to figure out when, how, where, why and what fits.

" Indeed, at its worst, performance art can seem gratuitous, boring or just plain weird.  But, at its best, it taps into our most basic shared instincts:  our physical and psychological needs for food, shelter, sex, and human interaction; our individual fears and self-consciousness; our concerns about life, the future, and the world we live in."

-quote from Performance Art: An Introduction by Dr. Virginia B. Spivey

Performance art provides a deeper connection between artist and audience. The space usage and how its in front of a viewer makes it all a unique experience. 

"For feminist artists in particular, using their body in live performance proved effective in challenging historical representations of women, made mostly by male artists for male patrons.  In keeping with past tradition, artists such as Carolee Schneemann, Hannah Wilke and Valie Export displayed their nude bodies for the viewer’s gaze; but, they resisted the idealized notion of women as passive objects of beauty and desire.  Through their words and actions, they confronted their audiences and raised issues about the relationship of female experience to cultural beliefs and institutions, physical appearance, and bodily functions including menstruation and childbearing."

-quote from Performance Art: An Introduction by Dr. Virginia B. Spivey

It is interesting to see how the women during this time were acting against the male gaze by showing their body as they wanted and not how they are painted in so many old oil paintings. I remember John Berger talking about how the woman is always presented for a man, aware of the gaze, and how she must always be posing nude. 

Thank God I’m home: First Meal exhibition- Dominique Ciaffone Essay

 

                                                Holding Orange for Jason Strong 2018.

At Home With Family, 2021

 While visiting the Thank God I’m home: First Meal exhibition, I experienced many emotions and empathy for people I never knew. Julie Green moved me with her art, and made me realize just how unfair and ruthless our society is today. The two pieces of art that I felt personally most connected with was At Home With Family, 2021 and Holding Orange for Jason Strong 2018. Both these paintings spoke to me, and allowed me to gain insight on the way innocent people were wrongly treated. 

At Home With Family, 2021 was the first painting that caught my eye. The beautiful colors and fantasy-like drawing of something so real compelled me to learn more. The artwork shows A Black male having dinner with his family for the first time after being wrongly accused of murder and sent to jail for years. The man in the picture was sent to jail, and forced to waste countless years of his life for a crime that he didn’t commit. Behavior like this accurately represents racism in our society today. You would think through many years of working towards equality that racism would be nonexistent today. However this painting demonstrates otherwise, and sadly this is the reality for many Black people. Julie Green writes next to the painting, “I have no idea how it feels to be Black male and no idea how it feels to be wrongfully imprisoned. I do know Blacks are seven times more likely to be wrongfully accused of murder. I can imagine how foreign and surreal it must feel to go home after such an ordeal.”  Imagine going to jail, leaving your family and missing out on years of your life for something that you didn’t do. This goes to show that society is too quick to judge, and racism still affects many lives today. Law enforcement clearly does not do a good job convincing people of crime, because this issue still happens today. This painting raises awareness on racism, and gives insight on how good people just want the same thing in life. We all want to spend time with our family, share meals, thoughts and our minds with the people that we love. However social injustice makes this harder than it has to be. I love the colors used in At Home With Family, 2021, they look eerie and beautiful at the same time. To me, the eeriness of the dark purple represents the pain and suffering many people go through because of racism. The gold beautifully contradicts the purple, and represents love and happiness found within spending life with the people you love. Looking in on the family painted in the picture, makes me realize how many things I take for granted. A home-cooked meal and spending time with family is something that you should never take for granted. Unfortunately people miss out on these pleasures due to social injustice, and I hope this changes soon.

Another favorite of mine from the exposition was Holding Orange for Jason Strong 2018. The writing next to the painting spoke to me, as it went into detail about Jason Strong holding an orange for 40 minutes after it was given to him by a waitress. This was after he just got out of jail for a wrongly accused of murder conviction. The quote next to the painting states “After 15 years in prison, Jason Strong mentions a waitress bringing a gift of an orange, holding it for 40 minutes, first orange in eight years.” It was the first orange that Jason Strong had in eight years. The story makes me realize how many things I take for granted, and the many privileges I have. Unfortunately many people don’t have the same privilege as me, and this is something that needs to change. These people wrongly convicted of murder will never get back the time that they lost within their lives. The fact that a good man could be sent to prison for 15 years just because of his skin color is heartbreaking. Julie Green's work poses as an activist, by representing the need for change and social justice within America. I love how in this painting, the plate is filled with the things that represent Jason Strong's home state. You can see all of the things that he might feel connected to or identify with. This painting makes me realize how similar we all are, and how we all can find comfort and beauty within the world around us. It is heartbreaking that this right is so wrongly taken from innocent people. Just like Thank God I’m home: First Meal, this artwork reminds me not to take anything for granted, and to keep working for a change for these beautiful people. 

The way that racism and social injustice has affected countless innocent lives needs to change. The fact that people get sent to jail for crimes they didn’t commit says a lot about society today. The artwork of Julie Green does a great job representing the lives of these beautiful innocent people that never deserved what they went to. This artwork inspires me to work for a change for the people like Julie Green has painted about. 

(other mandatory quotes were provided in my blog post from last week, I did the essay separate)

Kaitlyn Arroyo - Performance Selfie Draft

Kaitlyn Arroyo 

Self Image: I 

Professor Cacoilo

March 30th, 2022

"Casked Away in the Shadows"

Performance Art is part of a popular culture of people that engages the viewer and targets an audience to get involved with the demand of sharing this universal experience with the world. Performance is a real-life concept and follows the same cultural, liberal, and economic structure as it has played in the last few decades. 

Self-reflection is only natural for human beings, which usually begins with us comparing ourselves with someone else. This performance piece follows the story of a girl who struggles with personal identity and tries to seclude her former self into the shadows of nothingness. She is trying hard to keep up with this new image of herself, but deep down knows this affects her on the inside. Maybe she wants to be a people pleaser or try to fit in with the crowds, but all I can say is that she feels insecure about herself and has feelings of self-doubt. This idea was inspired by the works of Marina Abramovic. Her first performance piece relates to reflection, as she is described as a mirror. Abramovic shows people as themselves in her artwork. With this idea of putting a mirror in front of another, you will be left with the same outcome. Abramovic always thought of herself as an ugly child growing up, and desperately begged her mother to get nose surgery done. 

The first image depicts the feeling of lost hope, that her suppressed emotions got the best of her and she can't clear her mind of these thoughts. The second picture describes the unsettling feeling of being told things you don't want to hear in this attempt to shun society. The last and final image depicts the girl being picked on like she doesn't fit in with everyone else. People will be quick to point fingers at someone they hardly know.

- very dark ambiance 

- wants to please everyone around her

- blurry picture effect gives a sense of mystery to the piece

Joanne Finkelstein 

Excerpt from: The Art of Self Invention

Chapter 4 - Advertising

Two Quotes

"He rightly identified both the content of the mass media as well as the technology of the media - its distribution, ease of access, and availability - as two influential forces that would directly shape social life."

(Finkelstein 149) 

Social media has made it easier for artists to advertise their work online for people to collaboratively experience and enjoy it with others. With media influencing our lives, it's almost impossible to miss a notification from your favorite app alerting you of stuff you should look out for. Without technology, we would have never advanced as far as releasing ads other than by mainstream newspapers. 

"Art materializes the imagination; it turns objects into surfaces that can be overwritten by the imagination. Advertising achieves the same."

 (Finkelstein 153) 

The creative process of art-making comes with cohesive thinking skills and resources that let your mind do the talking. By advertising, we are promoting a particular product that is meant to be sold. In this case, art conceptually is being advertised throughout the world in the form of social media, Tumblr pics, Etsy boards, billboards, and logos. That's right! Art can be found everywhere around you. From the books you read to the fancy details on your phone cases, art plays a big factor in our lives and should be paid attention to more directly. 

Chapter 5 - Fashion

Two Quotes

"Fashion might suggest that we share the aesthetic values that circulate around desirable objects but, more often than not, these standards elude us."

(Finkelstein 190)

This society is always trying to fit into the latest fashion trends. However, it does not have to fit in the realm of outfits but plays an outlier with iconic food logos that draw a viewer's attention because they can easily identify something as simple as a McDonald's logo or Burger King. Trendsetting is a thing of the past and is something that has been brought back. I remember when crocs used to be the latest shoe style in the early 2000s, and just recently more people are starting to wear them to make a "statement", or perhaps try to fit in amongst popular crowds of people who were branded clothing. 

"It can intensify self-absorption and thus reduce the social, cultural, and intellectual horizons of the fashion habitat." 

(Finkelstein 210)

Clashing with societal norms of fashion means that people can wear anything they feel comfortable with and not have to stick with outfits they're accustomed to from their homeland. For example, anyone can follow up with the latest fashion trends and despite coming from a different background everyone is welcome to this concept. 

Khan Academy

Excerpt from: An Introduction of the Performance Art (course)

Two Quotes

"Performance art has been a medium that challenges and violates borders between disciplines and genders, between public and private, and between everyday life and art, it follows no rules." (Academy 2)

This conceptualized art form is essential to everyday life. There are no limitations to what can be created, which puts a lot of freedom on the table for creativity and imagination. Anybody, male or female can take part in a performance that questions individuals to think if this is stereotypical? There are many ways of using a public space and bringing it to life with a motif. However, not too many artists from the background of body-orientated movements take into account this form. 

"Such approaches engage the viewer and encourage their active participation in artistic production; however, they also speak to a cultural shift towards interactive modes of communication." (Academy 3)

Performance art has always been around since the late 19th and early 20th-century history. It is an expressive art medium that is used by communicating with the body. Through theatrical plays, musicals, ballet, and opera, we can imagine the body as our canvas that can be manipulated into however we want it to be. This type of art is controlled by the movement and rhythm of other performers who take part.

"The Letter" Inspired by Sophie Calle (Dominique Ciaffone)

 

    The Letter (inspired by Sophie Calle) 

My selfies are inspired by Sophie Calle. I was moved by the way she creates artwork through her own personal experiences with love and heartbreak. I really loved the “dumped by email” series where she had multiple people reading the letter she got dumped with. I resonate with her work because there is nothing more inspiring than the true personal experiences of another human. Nothing makes you feel more understood than knowing you are not alone in the experiences we all go through. 

Finkelstein, Chapter 4 advertising (2 quotes) 

“Art materializes the imagination; it turns objects into surfaces that

can be overwritten by the imagination. Advertising achieves the same.

The repeated sign of the soup can and Warhol's grids of the famous

- Elvis Presley, Mona Lisa - evidence the complex relationship be-

tween the object and audience.” -chapter 4

— I love the idea of art being a materialization of the imagination. This is such a beautiful way to put it, because it is something tangible that other people can relate to and admire. 

“Theories about identity and society take us to the intersection

where the made up and the made real are twinned, and where certain

Ideas and practices are presented as self-evident, as if this were the way

things had always been and will continue to be.” - chapter 4

— this quote makes me realize how much your perception has to do with everything. The way you perceive something is what makes it beautiful or ugly. The way you perceive something can make it true or false. And the way you perceive yourself is the idea you give to other people about who you are. 

Finkelstein, Chapter 5 fashion (2 quotes) 

“Objects are made to represent human

sentiments - a diamond ring signifies eternal love, a car freedom, the

business suit suggests wealth. The evolution of fashion has also played

an important role in privileging the visual and training the eye.”- chapter 5

— it is interesting to think of objects like this. I never realized how much of a role objects playing every day life. A ring symbolizes love, a car freedom and so on. In this day and age everyone seems to be materialistic, but there are also good reasons for this.

“Fashion is also a process that transforms the mundane activities of

everyday life into more elaborate and complex aesthetic experiences by

altering the emotional investment surrounding the display.” - chapter 5 

— Fashion can transform every day life into something more special. Dressing up can make life seem more colorful and aesthetic. When I was younger I didn’t understand why fashion was what it is today. However now I understand why fashion is so big, and the effect it has on everyone including myself. 

Khan Academy Performance Art An Introduction 2 quotes:

“Indeed, at its worst, performance art can seem gratuitous, boring or just plain weird.  But, at its best, it taps into our most basic shared instincts:  our physical and psychological needs for food, shelter, sex, and human interaction; our individual fears and self-consciousness; our concerns about life, the future, and the world we live in”

— Performance is such a beautiful and underrated way to connect with people. It is a need because it allows people to feel less alone and more understood in everyday life. Seeing a performance can unlock parts of yourself you didn’t know was there, and can definitely change you as a person. 

“Historically, performance art has been a medium that challenges and violates borders between disciplines and genders, between private and public, and between everyday life and art, and that follows no rules.” 

— This is such a big reason why performance art is so important. It challenges rules and stereotypes that should’ve never been there in the first place. No rules allows for true free expression and authenticity. 

Thank God, I’m Home: First Meal by Julie Green

     

Can't Eat Money

    The collage artist Julie Green brought to attention in her exhibition Thank God, I’m Home: First Meal, the issue with wrongful convictions and the death penalty. In this exhibition, she made many works illustrating plates and the foods that correlate to exonerated prisoners who were on their way to the death penalty and wrongfully so. On the illustrated plates the audience can see the first meals the exonerated prisoners received. The artist gives us a human element to consider which may have not been there before for many of the prisoners. The death penalty is still a cruel punishment ordered out by many states to the prisoners. Julie Green did create work related to the last meal prisoners on death row received and was inspired to follow the theme in this exhibition. 

In Green’s last meal and first meal exhibitions, the audience can tell that she cares and placed a great amount of thought into her work. Many have different opinions about the death penalty, for it or against it. However, Green’s work brings up wrongful execution and how it applied to those who are unable to defend themselves in a corrupt system. The exhibition may be tough to take in and some may try to deny the fact that this is as cruel as it is portrayed. This prompts us to another collage artist named Wagenchi Mutu, Mutu creates collaged pieces relating to herself, her background, gender, race, nature, and so on. She also deals with subjects that are confrontational for some and enlightening for others. There is an article discussing Mutu’s work that also relates to Green, it's called Wagenchi Mutu: A New Face for the Met By Nancy Princenthal. There is a quote in this article that relate to Green and her position as an artist in this divided society, “The work of these women is immense. The regard for them is not.” Many choose to not pay attention to real-world problems because they feel too comfortable in their societal position to bother and it is quite disturbing how easily they turn their heads away.

The first piece that will be discussed is Holding Orange by Julie Green. In this artwork Green takes Jason Stong, an exonerated prisoners story of what he ate when he was outside and free, After 15 years in prison, exoneree Jason Strong states a waitress brought him a gift of an orange and he held it for 40 minutes before eating it, It had been Strong’s first orange in eight years.  The full interview is included in the painting’s upper right corner of the piece. Green placed the state bird and flower on the plate border. Green collaborated with the exoneree and the Center on Wrongful Convictions. The plate at the center shows this peaceful scenery in nature, she really captured the essence of the moment Strong held the orange in his hands. In the article “The Last Supper:” Julie Green’s Plates about Death Row by Bill Rodgers it talks mainly about her Last supper series but it still applies to the First meal series. There is a statement Green says, “My story, however, is never going to fully depict the horror that unfolds dozens of times each year in tiny concrete rooms across the country.” It is understandable that she would like to bring more context and give more information since it's a very meaningful topic to her. The audience with the small context will see the intention and care given to every work. Her work incentives the viewer to be involved and research the topic she presents. That the people incarcerated should be given the benefit of the doubt, and that legitimate evidence matters. 

The second artwork by Julie Green is Huwe Burton Said Truth Freed Me, Music Kept Me Sane While I Waited. The title of this work comes directly from the wrongfully convicted individual's statement to Green. Huwe Burton describes his first meal of squash lasagna at Red Rooster in Harlem. Burton was sixteen years old when police forced a confession for the rape and murder of Burton's own mother. The officers involved are known to have used coercion to obtain false confessions in at least one other case. This painting is also of in collaboration with the exoneree, the Innocence Project, and the Center on Wrongful Convictions. The strong use of primary colors blue and red recalled a quote from The Feminist Challenge of Wangechi Mutu by Heidi Hirschl Orley. The author describes Mutu’s use of eyecatching colors and compositions to tackle ideas of identity, race, gender consumerism and it goes on. Mutu’s statement in the article was, “I’m interested in powerful images that strike chords embedded deep in the reservoirs of our unconscious.” It fits with Green’s artworks because she reminds us of how fundamental food is for us and the memories that accompany meals. Green’s overall work encourages us to think differently of prisoners, reminding us to be human and to care even a little about each other/ world.

Holding Orange for Jason Strong by Julie Green

Huwe Burton Said Truth Freed Me, Music Kept Me Sane While I Waited by Julie Green

"Self-Confidence" - Performance Selfies Inspired by Marina Abramovich (Nicolette Capua)

Nicolette Capua, Self-Confidence, 2022

        Self-confidence is a feeling of one's qualities, abilities, and judgment. We must own who we are to be confident in ourselves. The way we see ourselves is the way others will see us if we aren’t happy in our own skin. Marina Abramovich's first performance art was when she tried to break her nose on her bed so she could get a nose job. Her plan was to put pictures of Bridgett Bardot in her pocket, break her nose on the bed and when she would go to the hospital she could show them the picture of the nose she wanted. She was self-conscious about it and her mother would slap her every time she asked to get a nose job. She figured breaking it would allow her to get it done. Her nose made her feel ugly and insecure.

    The first picture in my series is showing a girl contouring her nose. She is doing this to change the shape of it to look smaller. The second picture is the girl covering the bump on her nose with her finger. She is covering the bump to see what she would look like without it. The third image is of the first looking down with her hands covering her face. She is very overwhelmed and frustrated. She doesn't feel beautiful and hates the way she looks. These pictures reflect Marina Abramovich's first performance. This girl is upset with the way she looks and will do anything she can to change her nose.

The Art of Self Invention

By Joanne Finkelstein


Chapter 4 : Advertising

1- “Advertisements have to be arresting. If they address us in embracing terms then we are drawn into their universe” (Finkelstein 147).

    Advertisements need to be addressed to a specific audience to draw them in and get them hooked on what they are promoting or selling. They have to be very specific in the advertisement in order to engage that certain audience they are looking for. We are drawn into their “universe” if they use distinct terms that we are attracted to.

2- “Commercial entertainments and modern advertising have structured a globalized communication system crossing linguistic, politics, economic and cultural barriers. An international community of like-minded individuals thus comes into existence” (Finkelstein 151).
    

     Entertainment and advertising has changed the way we communicate across social media. When these advertisements are put up, it is meant to target a specific audience of people who have many common traits. The idea is to promote and select a certain audience so your product or business will get more engagement. Social media is a great way to advertise your business. This way you can get more followers and people will see what you are up to.


Chapter 5: Fashion

1- “The birth of fashion coincides with other changes in society and heralds an era in which individual desires are made into realizable pursuits” (Finkelstein 192)
     

    Fashion is always changing. There are new trends everyday that people follow. Different eras of clothes are always coming back into fashion years later that people want to try. Once a style of clothing is starting to trend then that will be the clothes everyone wears since everyone likes to copy each other and follow what others are doing. Pursuing a certain fashion statement is your choice and you should be able to express yourself through clothes anyway you want, not just by what's popular.


2- The same attention to detail is applied to celebrities in the modern era who are captured by the paparazzi in unflattering poses and then described as too fat or too thin, possibly pregnant or anorexic, drug-addicted, unhappy, lonely, and depressed. Every detail of their presentation comes under close security that forces a conceptual collapse between identity and appearance” (Finkelstein 195).

    Celebrities are the ones who get the most hate with anything they do. They are always criticized by how they look, what they wear, what they eat, how they talk, etc. Fashion is very popular in the celebrity world and if you ever have one off moment where you don't look good, the paparazzi will get a picture of you and write something terrible about you. You always have to look presentable and wearing the latest fashion designs as a celebrity. Fashion will never stop being important and it depends on you if you want to stay up to date with it or not.

Khan Academy Performance Art: An Introduction

1- “These performative approaches to making art built on philosophical interpretations of Abstract Expressionism, which held the gestural markings of action painters as visible evidence of the artist’s own existence” (Khan Academy 7).

     Artists are very deliberate when making performative art. There is intention behind the lighting, visual effects, movement of the camera, etc. These performances help bring these arts visions to life and express an even bigger meaning behind it. They are great for making people more interested in their work and engaging a larger audience.

2- “By effectively calling attention to the hum of fluorescent lights, people moving in their seats, coughs, whispers, and other ordinary sounds, Cage transformed them into a unique musical composition” (Khan Academy 8).

     Everything used in these performances have a purpose towards the meaning of these artist's work. They are able to even make their work into musical performances that raise larger questions and bring more awareness to their art. Being able to make their art into performances helps their stories come to life.

Thank God, I'm Home - Gallery Essay

T-Bone Phone - Julie Green

Whopper, Fries and Then - Julie Green

     

               Our class got to visit the Thank God, I’m Home: First Meal exhibition at NJCU. The artist behind this exhibition, Julie Green, had asked wrongfully convicted people about the first meals they had when they were released from prison. After hearing their responses, she painted their answers and put up her work in this exhibition. When walking through this exhibition and seeing all the works of art that she created and reading the stories of all the people who have been wrongfully convicted was very powerful to see. There were two pieces that stuck out to me the most. One of them was titled T-Bone Phone and the other was called Whopper, Fries and Then.

               The first piece I’m going to talk about is T-Bone Phone. What I really loved about this piece is the boldness of the colors that Julie Green used. Compared to the other works in the exhibition this one had much darker colors. Something that’s apparent in this piece is that the steak is within an iPhone with photos of Charlie Brown along the sides of the painting. When reading about what this piece is about, it was sort of hard to imagine what the exoneree had to go through when released from prison. The exoneree had been in prison for 27 years and when he got out of prison, he was exposed to a whole new world than when he went in. Hearing this was hard for me to imagine, maybe because I was born into a world of when technology was growing and slowly grew along with it. It must have been very complicated for the exoneree to get a grasp on this new society that moved on without them. I think the Charlie Brown border on the side is meant to symbolize the society that he grew up in. And the iPhone in the center of the painting is meant to obviously show the new society that he has to get used to. I think it’s a really cool painting that does a great job showing how this person felt while getting his first meal from a whole new world to them.

               The second piece Whopper, Fries and Then had this sort of cruel irony to it which is small reason as to why I like the painting so much. What first caught my eye about the painting is the colors that were used. It has a bit of gold incorporated to the painting that really caught my eye. When this exoneree got out of prison, he wanted his first meal to be a whopper from Burger King. On the painting it says that the exoneree, Juan, had been in prison for 17 years while on death row. On the bottom of the plate, it mentions that after eating his first meal outside of prison he ended up throwing up. So this person had been waiting all this time to have a good meal once finally being able to leave prison, and once this moment has finally arrived for him, he ended up throwing up the food he had eaten. It’s a very cruel irony that Juan had experienced. I’m unsure as to whether or not this painting could have been commenting on fast food restaurants and the processed foods that are used that people eat regularly without a second thought.

               Julie Green had another exhibition that used plates to show the final meals of those who were executed while in prison. She painted food on porcelain plates to represent the convicts final meals. A quote from an article about this project of hers, “She began painting these meals on secondhand porcelain dinner plates, up to 50 a year. She’s since created 600 of these plates, sometimes making one each day.” This quote shows her dedication toward this cause that she’s very passionate about. She cares so much about those in prison and has a great empathy for them that not many people do. Even with the Thank God, I’m Home: First Meal exhibition she shows how much she cares about those she interviewed by how detailed she made her paintings. She wanted to convey their stories accurately as well as show the importance of meals for both of her projects. Another quote from this reading is “Individually, the plates are deeply personal.” This is another aspect of Green’s work that she expressed in this exhibition. Though some of the exoneree’s chose not to give too much information about their stories or even their names,  she’s still telling their stories and keeping the artworks dedicated to them as personal as possible. A final quote from this same article states, “One convict’s story forces us to think, seeing 600 such stories gathered in one place creates a roar that is impossible to shut out.” I feel like this quote does a great job capturing the overall work that Julie Green has done for these convicts and exoneree’s. She made sure to make their stories known even if many people may not have heard of their stories while in prison. This is truly a beautiful exhibition that I really enjoyed seeing. It made me appreciate meals in general and how lucky we all are to be able to eat every day with or without people around us. We have food at our disposal and not many people have the same privilege as we do.