What would a Thanksgiving meal look like if Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Jean‑Michel Basquiat, or Damien Hirst was plating dinner?
Last Thanksgiving, Berkeley, California–based Hannah Rothstein, currently artist in residence at Planet Labs, decided to imagine how 10 famous artists would plate Thanksgiving’s traditional meal of turkey, gravy, corn, green beans, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Her series “Thanksgiving Special” was a whimsical homage to the art of plating.
This year, she’s added 10 new artists to the bunch with “Thanksgiving Special: Seconds.” Rothstein shared a selection from the series and emailed some brief comments on her design process. The rest can be viewed on her website.

Courtesy of Hannah Rothstein

Courtesy of Hannah Rothstein

Keith Haring. “Referencing the simple, dynamic aesthetic of Haring, this plate recreates one of his figures,” Rothstein says. “I kept the background plain so as to keep the figure from being visually overwhelmed by the host of other textures each food item created.”
Courtesy of Hannah Rothstein

Jean-Michel Basquiat. “I chose to keep the background simple so as to keep the eye focused on the symbol for which Basquiat is best known: a crown,” Rothstein says.
Courtesy of Hannah Rothstein

Jackson Pollock. “Here, I was inspired by Pollock’s general style instead of one specific work,” Rothstein says. “Like Pollock, I tried to keep composition in mind as I splattered and dribbled food across the plate with a turkey baster and dowel.”
Courtesy of Hannah Rothstein

Pablo Picasso. “Picasso, in his Cubist period, broke down what he saw into different angles, and painted a cumulative whole containing said multiple viewpoints,” Rothstein says. “[With] this idea in mind, [I] fragmented the foundation of the Thanksgiving meal—the plate—so as to, like Picasso, deconstruct in order reconstruct.”
Courtesy of Hannah Rothstein

Courtesy of Hannah Rothstein

Piet Mondrian. “Since squares and lines could be easily seen as simple geometry instead of a specific artist’s style, this work drew very [directly] upon Mondrian’s art,” Rothstein says. “I used a knife edge to create the square, and a dowel dipped in gravy to create the lines.”
Courtesy of Hannah Rothstein

Coutesy of Hannah Rothstein