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Blogs / On the Table / January 2010 / An art blog disguised as a food blog: loking at Jamie Wyeth's gulls

An art blog disguised as a food blog: loking at Jamie Wyeth's gulls

First of all, this doesn't really fit in a blog that's supposed to be about food, unless you count the painting of gluttony as food related and wonder, like I did, why artist Jamie Wyeth showed his greedy gull noshing on a cooked lobster.

Seagulls—noisy, bold, trashy scavengers— are practically sacred in Utah. The unexpected cries and sight of seagulls in the desert was mythologized in the LDS story of the Miracle of the Gulls, when flocks of white birds descended on the plague of Mormon crickets devastating pioneer crops, and saved the Saints from starvation. Like gulls don't eat crickets unless directed by the Almighty?

Anyway, see Seagulls Monument.

See Capitol Rotunda.

So American artist Jamie Wyeth's group of seagull paintings was a perfect exhibit for Utah, even though Wyeth's gulls are mostly herring and blackback, and the Utah state bird is the California gull.  ( I know. Odd. )

Anyway, Wyeth's gull paintings illustrate the Seven Deadly Sins, so there's a moral to every painting and Utahns tend to like didactic stories. So that's another reason this exhibit of paintings by an artist deeply rooted in the American east coast, made its way to the Great Basin. 

The paintings are on display at the Salt Lake Art Center, with a companion show yesterday in the Capitol rotunda. At last night's show opening, Wyeth spoke to a small but packed auditorium about the paintings, admitting he'd been obsessed with gulls and sins for about three years and was now a little nonplussed by the whole experience.

I have to say I share his nonplussment—the depiction of sin via seagull takes anthropomorphism a touch too far for my taste. Even though I do talk to my cat on the phone.

But the paintings themselves are marvellous—as narratively and visually dramatic as Jamie's grandfather's illustrations for books like Treasure Island and Kidnapped  but with a visible passion for paint itself that blurs the line between realism and abstraction.  

Go see them. Remember, the Salt Lake Art Center is free.

P.S. What does have to do with food, besides the gulls' cricket feast?

Nothing really, but I did make enchiladas afterwards—sauteed 2 chopped onions in oil with a tablespoon of ground cumins. Shredded a bunch of jack and rat cheese. Softened corn tortillas in hot oil, rolled'em around a few tablespoons of cheese and onions and arranged them in a greased casserole. Thin beef chili with a little water and spread it over the enchiladas. Cover with foil and while they're heating through in a 350-degree oven, make a salad with any lettuce you want but be sure include a little chopped iceberg for crunch, chopped carrots and celery, avocado chunnks if you have one, a bunch of dry-toasted pine nuts, a tablespoon of fresh grated orange peel, and oil and vinegar. Remove foil and sprinkle cheese over the enchiladas and put back in oven till just melted. If you've got chili made already, this meal takes only a few minutes. Rinse a bunch of cilantro, pulse it in the processor for a few minutes, fold it into a jar of hot sauce and serve it with chips for guests to eat while you roll.