Art Ministry

This is the Feast

ARTIST STATEMENT

JUDY FINNEGAN

When I heard a guest on Bill Moyers’s Faith and Reason program on PBS speak of the incarnation as the basis for her Christian faith, saying that Luke gives us a “Resurrection Menu”, I thought that would be a neat title for a painting, and laid plans to paint a broiled fish. Then I started considering other foods mentioned in the Bible. While trolling the scriptures, meditating, and general inquiry, I became interested in the significance of food in the lives of humans and animals. We are a part of the food chain, as we are often reminded. Beyond food for nutrition, there is food for celebration, food as symbolism, forbidden foods, foods for expression of identity, food for pleasure, food for hospitality, food for negotiation, food for learning, food as remedy, food as currency and every other imaginable use.

We live in a time when food is available in an abundance of varieties and it presents a continuing debate as to what is “yes-yes” and “no-no” for consumption. It is an obsession of the news media as well as the general public and the implications of pollution, endangered species, over-processing, overindulgence, starvation, poor nutrition affect the planet in many ways.

This series of paintings is an interpretation of some of the many scriptural references to food. It is a blend of historical, allegorical and contemporary imagery, not intended to be literal, although I am using recognizable forms.

With copious notes and sketches, I have only begun to consider the possibilities and I am hoping the viewer will be inspired to embark on their own dig through scripture to make some discoveries. 

Clean Winged Creature	Cravings in the Desert	Elijah's Waitstaff
Deuteronomy 14:20 "All clean winged things you may eat"	Numbers 11:5 "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leaks, the onions and the garlic...	1 Kings 17:6 "The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook."
Frosted Lady Cakes	John's Dessert Awaits	Love Feast
Jeremiah 44:19 "The women added, 'When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes like her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?'"	Matthew 3:4 John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey."	Proverbs 15:17 "Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fatted calf with hatred."
Multiplication Table	Pig's Dinner	Resurrection Menu
Luke 9:13 He replied, 'You give them something to eat.' They answered, 'We have only five loaves and two fish – unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.'"	Luke 15:16 "He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything."	Luke 24:42 "They gave him a piece of broiled fish"