The Diners Work Statement

The Diners explores my experiences working as a restaurant server over the course of the pandemic. These paintings, all of which take place in local Richmond restaurants, capture the closeness of dining with loved ones, combined with the anxiety, privilege, risk, and luxury of not adapting social connection to the pandemic.  

Since information and regulations regarding COVID-19 have evolved since 2020, each painting is a unique timestamp of specific periods that brings up an odd sense of nostalgia. I use food and drinks to suggest opulence, excess, entitlement, privilege, and the human connection of sharing a meal, and to create social commentary on who feasts and who does not. Food in various stages of consumption, debris on the table, gorgeous untouched desserts, empty wine glasses, and old-fashioned foods in tiny portions are some of my favorite images with which to explore this theme. 

The servers, who have provided entertainment and normalcy at the risk of their health, are absent from my paintings, although they leave disembodied traces of their work (an anonymous hand in a surgical glove, a server in the background facing away from the viewer), thus preserving their autonomy by not requiring their performance. The exception is the final painting, The Worker, in which I depict a bartender, at home and in control amidst a chaotic bar. The diners, instead, are on display and up for judgment, and the viewer must also understand their compliance in the scene, as the table is set for them, as well. However, my subjects are not antagonists; they are my coworkers, friends, family, and acquaintances, navigating isolation and the desire for the luxury and intimacy of sharing a meal in fraught times.

To inquire about purchasing, email maddykeenerart@gmail.com.