The Historian Dr. Ariane Galy’s Essay About Cristina Rodriguez’s Painting "The Meals"

This beautiful representation of the evolution of a child’s meals from birth to young childhood perfectly captures the huge changes that happen so quickly in the early years of a new family. The new mother’s twilight feeds, at once magical and exhausting. The wonderful moment when both parents can provide the life-giving milk, and the baby’s exciting and messy discovery of food. The little tea party under the table reminds us how quickly time passes and how fast children change and grow – spurred on by their desire to emulate their parents, they are soon holding little mealtimes of their own. ‘The Meals’ evokes the ever-changing, exciting, but often arduous pace of life with small children, and of the eternal parental paradox: we wish time to speed up so that things may get easier, yet also to slow down so that we may hold on to our tiny children a little longer.