Joan of Arc chose holy communion. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh chose two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream. And unhappily for Canadian painter Kate MacDonald, Texas inmate Cameron Todd Willingham chose a gut-buster in 2004—three barbecued pork ribs, two orders of onion rings, fried okra, three beef enchiladas with cheese, and two slices of lemon cream pie. The reason it was such a problem: MacDonald paints the remnants of death row inmates’ last meals, and to do that, she has to cook and then eat the same food. “I really have a hard time with ribs now,” she says. “They stick in my throat.”

MacDonald, who has eaten and painted a couple of pre-execution feasts a year since 2006, is just one of several artists around the world who have found their muse in the final menus of doomed convicts. Most don’t go so far as to consume the food themselves, but their re-creations ensure that these meals are remembered long after the last bite.

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