American Bodegónes

American Bodegónes reflects on mortality, the human condition, and our culture’s obsession with materialism. Through imagery inspired by Dutch and Spanish paintings, it expresses the transience of our existence by exploring our shared relationship with food. In the 16th and 17th centuries, artists in the Netherlands created Vanitas still-life paintings that presented objects, representing earthly possessions and consumption, as a warning to the soul. In Spain, they created similar imagery in their Bodegones, paintings of traditional pantries filled with vegetables and game. These still-lifes represented the increasing role of material possessions. Food is an integral element of these traditions These paintings inspire me because I find our present consumerism parallel to the cautionary themes of Vanitas and Bodegónes. Beyond their warnings, I’ve come to appreciate these works as meditations on the fleeting nature of existence and reflections of our shared human experience. In my work, I explore the origins of our modern Western diet and the abundance of processed food. I aim to create narratives of our food’s sources, exposing the beautiful and grotesque of the natural world with a little humor.