Q & A Arno Jordan

That bizarrely bucolic mural of cheerful farmhands, snoozing hogs and frolicking piglets covering the side of the Farmer John meatpacking plant in Vernon is, in fact, a 40-year work-in-progress. The abattoir employs Arno Jordan, a 63-year-old Austrian emigre, to touch up the mural--which now covers more than 30,000 square feet--and paint fresh scenes of porcine splendor when inspiration strikes. Jordan was handed the brush in 1970, two years after Les Grimes, a Hollywood scenic-backdrop painter and the mural’s creator, was killed in a fall from a scaffold at the site.

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What inspires your work?

I grew up on a farm with every kind of livestock you could imagine.

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Do you use swine models?

I take photographs of the pigs that come in. Most are only 6 months old, though, so they look alike. You don’t get a big huge sow with character.

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Can the pigs see the mural when they arrive?

No, they come through the back. I don’t think they would look at the mural anyway.

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What if they could? What would they be thinking?

I never thought of that. I guess, “This looks like a nice place to come.”

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Isn’t that kind of sad?

It’s part of the food chain. The whole process is pretty modern--they don’t feel any pain. I kind of depict how they’d be in the pasture, not how they come into the plant.

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Are you a vegetarian?

Oh, no. I’ve been eating Farmer John products for 30 years and I’m still in good shape. The pork roast is delicious.

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Ever wonder if you were eating one of your subjects?

No, I never thought that way. I didn’t want to spoil my appetite.