Kathy Vargas

This series had its origins in a friend’s copy of the Wall Street Journal. There I read about the sea food industry shrugging off environmental concerns in favor of economic expediency: it was too expensive to release Ridley turtles and dolphins accidentally caught in fish nets. The captured creatures, endangered or not, were sacrificed.
That launched this grotesque series of seafood plate lunches, even one with a crab dueling with the fork that’s trying to stab him. That crab deserved a fighting chance, after all. Still, it was about money, wasn’t it?
My dark sense of humor created frog’s legs dancers, kicking up their heels to a money tune. Kindly notice, though, that the musicians playing the song have their hands nailed to their instruments. Even those who call the tune pay a price.
To thank the food I ate for nourishing me, I made them into seafood saints enshrined in lunch trays that look like altarpieces, gold paint making them resplendent.