The exhibition "Thank God I'm Home: First Meal" is an ongoing painting series that began in 2018 and explored themes of collective memory, loss, and social justice, all of which are central to Julie Green's work. The paintings in the series portray the first meals eaten by falsely convicted people after they are released from jail; each painting conveys a tale about each inmate and their last meal. Green's First Meals appear at first glance to be patchwork flags stitched together with various fabrics, 24k gold, found samplers, turmeric-dyed silk, and more, all sewn onto Tyvek, that hardy synthetic material used to wrap buildings under construction.
In "Thank God I'm home," Julie painted a corned beef sandwich, Marcel Brown's meal after he was released. This work stood out to me because, thank god, I'm home was the comment marcel brown made to Julie green makes you think about all the incarcerated people who won't ever be able to ever say does words again. Marcel brown was a teenager convicted of a murder he did not commit based on uncounseled and coerced false statements made during 34 hours of police interrogation. He was wrongfully accused of murder, and ten years later, he was released. Brown is a perfect example of how the justice system is wrongful and unfair; incarcerating innocent people should have consequences. A quote from the reading "The Last Supper:" Julie Green's Plates about Death Row" that stood out to me was "One convict requested a birthday cake, and Green notes on the plate that the convict had never had a birthday cake before." This shows how sad life inside prison is; imagine not going home and celebrating your birthday with a cake. Many inmates are never released and don't experience the small things in life.
Another piece that stood out to me was "At Home With Family". The beautiful painting shows a family enjoying a meal together; this perfectly illustrates how important being with family is; your life can suddenly change, and you'll never know when you will be able to be with the people you love again. This painting is about Robert Hill and his family eating a meal together after being released from prison. This painting shows how incarnation impacts many people who can't visit their homes, missing out on the many things that other people are allowed to do on a daily basis, as some who are unfairly imprisoned only desire the opportunity to live their lives normally. This draws attention to the fact that the justice system is severely dysfunctional. The justice system breaks up families while in prison, and they cannot experience things with their family, watch their children grow, or even spend time with them.
Green's work effectively depicts simple things that exonerees miss while incarcerated, such as being in the presence of family and having a meal that is better than what they have been served in previous years with people who care about them. In the YouTube video "The Last Supper," Green states, "I wanted to make something that brought the viewer in that had a degree of beauty." Her intentions were to make something that was beautiful to the viewer but also had a deeper meaning. Julie Green brings awareness to how inmates are deprived of the small things in life, and many are given the death penalty.
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