Julie L. Green

Julie Lynn Green (22 September 1961 – 12 October 2021) was an American artist known for making paintings about food, fashion, and capital punishment. She spent half of each year on her work, The Last Supper, a series of 1000 plates, illustrating final meals of U.S. death row inmates.

This article is about the American artist. For the Canadian politician, see Julie Green.

Julie L. Green
The Last Supper
Born1961
Yokosuka, Japan
Died (aged 60)
Alma materThe University of Kansas
OccupationArtist
SpouseClay Lohmann

Early life and education

Julie Lynn Green was born in Yokosuka on 22 September 1961.[1] In 1983 she earned a bachelor of fine arts in graphic design and master of fine arts in 1996 from The University of Kansas in Lawrence.[1]

Green was a professor at Oregon State University and married artist Clay Lohmann.[2]

Career

Green's series, The Last Supper, was a series of blue glazed ceramic plates which documented the last meal of death row prisoners. They intended on creating these until death row was abolished or after 1,000 plates were created, whichever came first.[1] They were first inspired when seeing what a condemned person was served in newspapers and humanized the experiences of those individuals through their meals.[3]

After previously focusing on the last meals of death row inmates, Green released a series of paintings and documents relating to death row prisoners' first meals after exoneration. The series was done with the help of Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions.[4][5]

Green's solo exhibitions included "The Last Supper" at Bellevue Museum of Art, Texas State University.[6] Their work has been featured in Oregon Artswatch, Ceramics Monthly and other publications.[7][8][9] The Last Supper book, published by The Arts Center, Corvallis, OR, includes images of 500 plates.[10]

Works

Last Supper

“Last Supper” is a large-scale installation of 1000 plates painted with images of food and words in cobalt blue that depict the final meal requests of the U.S. Death Row Inmates. Julie has their own understanding of food: "Food is sustenance, food is community, food is sharing ideas with friends and family, it’s a celebration, it's joy, and even if it's eaten alone, it’s still a ritual."[11] Green also lists the date of the execution and the state where it happened. For the plate “New Mexico 06 November 2001”, Julie paints seven shrimps and an ice-cream on a dessert plate.[12] The artworks to emphasize the humanity of those condemned prisoners and is a call to end capital punishment one day in the U.S.  Green planned to continue working on “Last Supper” until capital punishment is abolished. However, they ended this series after completing 1000 plates after they were diagnosed with ovarian cancer.   

First Meal

“First Meal” is a companion series of “Last Supper” that consists of 30 artworks. Instead of using plates, Green paints with acrylic on Tyvek. The series lasted three years until their death. To accomplish this series, they asked wrongfully convicted persons about what they ate for their first meal after they were released from prison. For one former prisoner, he chose a burger and fries from Burger King. Below the image of the meal, a sentence was written: “17 years on death row, 1st meal on the outside, then threw up”.[13] Green’s work is helping those innocent people to gain attention for how they were falsely treated. Meanwhile, they are reminding people about the imperfection of our current justice system.. Chadd Scott wrote down in his article: "Examples like this demonstrate how the seemingly more hopeful nature of First Meal artworks can, in fact, be more heartbreaking than the stories shared in The Last Supper. Years, in some cases decades, stolen from innocent people, the prime of their lives spent locked away by a criminal justice system still rife with prejudice and inequity."[14]

Death and legacy

Following Green's 1,000th plate for their decades-long art project, The Last Supper, they died on 12 October 2021, in Corvallis, Oregon, by physician-assisted suicide under Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. They had ovarian cancer.[1]

Awards

A recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, Green won the 2015 ArtPrize 3-D Juried Award and a 2016 Oregon Arts Commission Fellow.[15][16][17] Green was a 2017 Hallie Ford Fellow through The Ford Family Foundation.[18]

References
  1. Green, Penelope (5 November 2021). "Julie Green, Artist Who Memorialized Inmates' Last Suppers, Dies at 60". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  2. "Julie Green". Oregon State University. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  3. Johnson, Kirk (25 January 2013). "Dish by Dish, Art of Last Meals". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  4. Hartke, Kristen (17 December 2018). "Art Series Captures Taste And Color Of Prisoners' First Meal After Exoneration". NPR. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  5. Commisso, Erica (21 January 2019). "'First Meal': Artist Explores Prisoner Exoneration Through Food Artist Julie Green turns exonerated prisoners' first meals into poignant pieces of art". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  6. Zech, Brandon (29 September 2017). "Julie Green at Texas State University". Glasstire. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  7. Kook-Anderson, Grace. "Julie Green: Yielding to the capricious outcome". Oregon Artswatch.
  8. van Wagtendonk, Anya (25 February 2015). "Painter immortalizes last meals of 600 prisoners put to death". PBS. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  9. Fizell, Megan (2011). "Last Supper" (PDF). Ceramics Monthly (September 2011): 42–45. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  10. Johnson, Kirk (2013). "'The Last Supper,' by Julie Green, at Arts Center in Oregon". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  11. "Six Tacos, Six Glazed Doughnuts, and a Cherry Coke: An Interview with Julie Green | Bad at Sports". Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  12. "New Mexico 06 November 2001". Julie Green. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  13. "Exonerated, Juan Melendez". Julie Green. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  14. Scott, Chadd. "Cruelty Of Wrongful Convictions Humanized By Julie Green 'First Meal' Series". Forbes. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  15. Foundation, Joan Mitchell. "Joan Mitchell Foundation » Artist Programs » Artist Grants". joanmitchellfoundation.org. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  16. "ArtPrize Announces the Winners of $500,000 in Awards". www.artprize.org. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  17. "Julie Green | Oregon Arts Commission". www.oregonartscommission.org. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  18. "Julie Green | The Ford Family Foundation". www.tfff.org. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
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