REXBURG— The Spori Art Gallery at BYU-Idaho has its fair share of unique art. A new exhibit shows off an interesting perspective on food art.
Daniel George, a Brigham Young University professor and photographer, studied undergraduate photography at BYU-Idaho and went to graduate school at Savannah College of Art and Design. George always had a passion for teaching and says his journey to his current position as a BYU professor was “divine intervention.”
“And just by divine intervention, luck, or whatever we want to call it, a job opened up at BYU,” George said. “I ended up down there and have been there ever since, not thinking that would be where I ended up.”
His new exhibit at BYU-Idaho, “The Jello Belt,” starts with different pictures of a simple, sweet treat: Jell-O. As he looked at the pictures he took, he couldn’t help but notice something much deeper than just a tasty treat when he photographed Jell-O in circular molds.
"I wanted to do something eye catching,” he said. “I was thinking well, how would you photograph a circle in an interesting way? And I thought about astrophotography, like photographs of planets and celestial bodies and how those are just really striking because they're so simple.”
George’s art connects food and faith together in a way that has never been done before.
“Within this body of work called ‘Marrow,’ I was thinking and it kind of stemmed from what started with those Jell-O pieces, that body of work titled “Salad,” where I began thinking about just how food and faith connect with one another, how food represents more than just what gives us sustenance, kind of makes us who we are, it fuels us, but also kind of what it says in terms of just our values and belief systems,” George said.
In the exhibit, you’ll find more than just pictures of Jell-O, but other food connected to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints like funeral potatoes, macaroni and cheese with hot dogs and that infamous green drink found at many potlucks.
His other photographs connect Latter-day Saint scripture names with actual places, like Lehi or Nephi, Utah.
The free exhibit is open through Feb. 22 in the Spori Art Gallery.