This is a portrait of Ronald McDonald.  Even though he is not a real person, but rather just a logo...he is still without doubt one of the most famous faces in our country, if not the entire world.  I can safely say that if you showed 1000 people a photo of Ronald McDonald, 999 would be able to tell you who they were looking at.  Because of this great influence he has made on our society, I felt he was deserving of being immortalized with my other subjects.  The piece is made out of McDonald's packaging, toys, dinnerware, and food super glued to Formica that was adhered to Styrofoam.  I did this so that it looked to the viewer like he/she was looking down onto a table top, in which a large party of people just finished pigging out on a huge quantities of McDonalds food; the aftermath of a great feast.  The French Fries, Chicken McNuggets, and buns are real food.  There are so many preservatives in those items that I could simply let them dry out without any mold growing on them, then dip them in varnish to preserve them in a more permanent fashion.  
I named it "The Dinner Party" as a reference to the Judy Chicago piece from 1979.  Judy's piece was meant to celebrate the feminist movement, and has 39 female guests(all success female figures) neatly arranged around a triangle (the symbol for the woman/goddess).  This piece was meant to celebrate women getting out of the role home-maker, and into successful careers. There is a great deal of order and uniformity throughout the piece, each of the 39 guests in her own place, dinnerware placed accordingly.  My piece is meant to show the aftermath of Judy's celebration, exhibiting the fast-food society we have become since women have liberated themselves from the kitchen.  The family dinner, once a daily occurrence in which the entire family came together after their long days at work/school to share their lives with each other over a meal, has all but disappeared from our society.  Now, families either grab a quick bite at a fast food place, or microwave something quick and eat in front of television.  While Judy Chicago's piece had a neatly set table with a great deal of order to it, my table is total chaos; spilled drinks, half-eaten burgers and fries, crumpled napkins and packaging, all showing the lack of formality in a fast food culture.  
I am not trying to express an opinion in this piece.  I am a huge supporter of the feminist movement, and I believe that women have made irreplaceable contributions to our society, and we are a better world for it.  I also believe that a formal sit-down meal with friends and family is still one of the greatest ways to celebrate our lives and relate to one another.  I am simply stating that a change in our culture's dining habits has taken place.  I then give some insight as to what may have prompted this change to occur.  Whether it is good or bad is up to you the viewer.