Tag: color

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New exhibits at Boca Raton Museum of Art

In keeping with the spirit of the times, the Boca Raton Museum of Art is hosting six new exhibitions, many of them featuring works by women and artists of color. Three exhibits opened in October and the other three will open Jan. 26, 2021.

Two shows were extended beyond the quarantine and will continue through Jan. 3: Edward Steichen: In Exaltation of Flowers, and Works on Paper: Drawn from the Collection.

“This year has been an unprecedented journey for cultural institutions,” says Irvin Lippman, executive director of the museum. “We are fortunate to be able to provide new initiatives and exhibitions and, most importantly, a safe haven for visitors — a place of repose and enjoyment.”

“Our latest exhibits are part of recent acquisitions underscoring that the museum’s collection continues to evolve with new works by women and artists of color who challenge us to see the world anew,” says Lippman.

One of those women is Jamaican-American artist Renee Cox, known for her collection, “Flipping the Script,” which speaks to race, religion, and gender roles.

Cox flips the script again in her new work titled, “The Signing,” part of the Museum’s latest exhibition. The 15-facetime. long photograph reimagines Howard Chandler Christy’s iconic painting, “Scene at The Signing of the Constitution of the United States.”

In Cox’s interpretation, people of color, wearing traditional African clothing and period clothing from the 1700s or contemporary items, stand in for the founding fathers.

Another artist of color – the late Benjamin Patterson, one of the founding members of the Fluxus art movement during the 1960s-70s, which claims Yoko Ono as one of its own, has his work, “My Thirteen Presidents,”showcased at the museum.

Patterson depicts American presidents, along with their astrological signs, who served during his lifetime (1934- 2016) from Roosevelt to Obama.

Also on display and spanning an entire wall in the first floor gallery is Norwegian artist, Trine Lise Nedreaas’s 22-minute three-panel synchronized film, “The Entertainers” featuring the video, “The Mask,” in which a subject, Arthur, transforms himself into his alter-ego, Arthuro the Clown.

On the museum’s second floor, Delray Beach-based ceramicist and steel sculptor, Jeff Whyman’s, “Out of Nature,” features a selection of his one-of-a-kind ceramics using clays from California and Washington, and fabricated in kilns from Illinois, Missouri, and Florida, all yielding different results.

Whyman creates his works all in one moment while the clay is still wet. He uses the wheel to throw his vessels while spontaneously adding a mix of materials: sea glass, Chinese crystals, and mineral oxides.

Coming in January are “Glasstress Boca Raton 2021,” featuring Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei’s Blossom chandelier sculpture, that will travel by boat from Italy to Boca Raton, “An Irresistible Urge to Create: The Monroe Family Collection of Florida Outsider Art,” and “Paul Gervais: Faces and Forms.”

Read more about all of the upcoming shows at bocamuseum.org/art/ upcoming-exhibitions.

 

 

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Fresh produce offers health in seasonal colors

With the arrival of the end of the year holidays, I get the impression that my clients think they have a pass on doing the right thing. Not! I know there is  plethora of tempting edibles at every gathering, at homes, and workplaces.

But one of the best things about this time of year is the colorful and nutrition filled fresh produce. It’s as if Mother Nature selected the season’s bounty to fit right in with the traditional holiday colors of red and green.

Radishes

Though red radishes are the most popular, they also come in rose, purple, lavender, and white. The popular variety in red and white could easily be considered the Santa Claus vegetable.

With a few swift slits of the paring knife, these orbs become the focal point of a vegetable tray. They look good, and they are good for you. The radish is low in calories, and high in vitamins A and C.

Radishes are a good source of vitamins and minerals. The vegetable’s high water and fiber content aids in digestion and makes it an excellent detoxifier.

Radicchio 

This colorful veggie looks like red cabbage with deep red or magenta leaves and white veins. Its flavor is spicy, with a hint of bitterness. It adds a stunning  pop of color to salads, and vegetable trays. You can also spread radicchio’s leaves with hummus, dips, tuna, or shrimp salad instead of crackers. It is a good source of antioxidants, contributing to overall health and wellness. The veggie is also high in fiber, as well as vitamins C and K, which promotes bone health. It contains magnesium which helps build strong bones and teeth, and potassium which plays a positive role in regulating blood pressure.

Beets 

Red beets are available year-round and can be served roasted, steamed, pickled, or in juice. This vegetable is in the same family as spinach and Swiss  chard. Beets are a good source of heart healthy folate and potassium. They also contain energy producing carbohydrates, antioxidants manganese and vitamin C; they are a good source of digestive-supportive dietary fiber, along with magnesium, iron, and phosphorus.

You can intensify the color of beets by adding lemon juice or vinegar while cooking for a brighter color. Baking soda will cause them to turn a deeper purple. Add salt after cooking, because it can blunt the color.

Red Swiss Chard

This leafy green, also in the vegetable family with beets, is stunning with its magenta stalk and veins surrounded by textured deep green leaves.

Swiss chard is an excellent source of bone-building vitamin K, manganese, and magnesium; it is high in antioxidants vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E. It contains potassium and iron, is a good source of fiber and B vitamins including folate which is good for a healthy heart. Swiss chard can be included in salads and sandwiches or as a hot vegetable. To maximize the nutrients, quick cooking such as sauté or steaming is best.

Whether seasonal festivities or year ‘round, these “reds” are vegetables to dish about; they are fabulous looking, great of these to your menu and you’ll be one nutrition-savvy hostess/host serving great dishes that are nutrition rich.

Take Away: Festive occasions can be enjoyed without shelving your plan for good health. Make wise choices and try to opt for colorful fruits and vegetables. Plenty of fruits and vegetables will go a long way toward keeping the calories down and nutrition up.

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Yes, there are decent sweet wines

Most wine aficionados, geeks, and the pinky lifters look at sweet wines as “syrupy sweet little nonentities” that should not be taken seriously and dismiss them as undrinkable trash. Unfortunately, in some cases, they happen to be right. This country, whose citizens are known to have a monstrous sweet tooth, has been subjected to some incredibly poor sweet wines that have nothing at all to offer them except being an inexpensive, slightly alcoholic, grape flavored, soda pop without the bubbles.

Enter Bordeaux France, the ancestral home of many of the world’s fi nest wines, some of these being sweet wines. These wines are so popular in Europe (more specifically in Russia) that we rarely see them here. Sweet wines, often called Dessert Wines, display all of the charm and character that made the classical Bordeaux wines famous and are once again appearing on our shores. Might I suggest that we drop our sweet win prejudice and give these wines a fair trial?

Just FYI, Château d’Yquem, a Bordeaux sweet wine, was awarded the highest rating a Bordeaux wine can achieve, Premier Cru Supérieur, and sells for $250+ a bottle.

Let’s start by stating one very important point: it is ILLEGAL in every wine producing country of the world to add sugar to wine to sweeten it or increase its alcohol content; in ancient Germany, the penalty was death. Wines are made sweet in Bordeaux when growers take the gamble of losing their entire crop to frost or disease and leave the grapes on the vine long enough to create natural sugars enhanced by a good fungus called botrytis cinerea. The botrytis not only enhances the grape sugars but also adds its desirable and distinctive flavor and aroma to the finished wine.

2015 Château Dauphiné Rondillon 750 ml ($42).
This wine, as do all of the Bordeaux sweet wines, displays a golden color that is almost hypnotizing and eagerly invites the first sip. The aroma is outstanding, displaying wildflowers, citrus, and summer stone fruits. On the palate, the wine presents peaches, honey, crème brûlée, tangerine, and the unmistakably pleasant flavor from the botrytis. These all continue to the finish where they seem to last indefinitely. This is a prime example of a Bordeaux sweetie and may change your mind about sweet wines forever.

2019 Château La Hargue 375 ml ($15).

This wine presents a brilliant golden color and an attractive aroma of exotic fruit, citrus, and vanilla. The aroma proceeds nonstop to the flavor, where it is enhanced by the sweetness. The finish will impress you with its extraordinary length. If you believe that all sweet wines taste the same, the 2019 Château La Hargue will change your mind.

2018 Château Tanesse Palissades 375 ml ($15).

Another melody of a similar tune, however, this one has incorporated the Muscadelle grape into the blend for added interest, depth, and color. This is truly a summer wine as it very prominently displays the aromas of summer  flowers and the light-colored summer fruits. There are hints of citrus, such as tangerine and grapefruit, which carry on to the flavor and then transition to a fresh and fruity, almost overpowering, finish. This wine could be considered the perfect ambassador for sweet Bordeaux wines.

Château la Rame 750 ml ($35).

This wine is the most kaleidoscopic of the quartet, presenting an ever changing experience. Here too, the wine shares similar flavors and aromas to all Bordeaux sweet wines but presents its flavors in a different order, making for even greater interest. It is the summer fruits that take preference over the floral aromas. These fruits carry through to the flavor and are amplified in the finish. This wine, like all of the others presented here, can prove to be the perfect end to a perfect meal.

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Parkland mom launches Dough Nation

With the increase in schools and workplaces closed due to the pandemic, many parents have found themselves holding multiple roles.

ER nurse and Parkland resident, Shannon Taccalite, has firsthand experience.“My husband and I do everything we can to keep our kids active and off electronics. School is virtual, so it gets to be too much.”

A mother to 4 children, ages 2-20, Taccalite juggles working as a full-time nurse and a mother. Since the pandemic, Taccalite has had to find activities to keep her children busy for more than five minutes.

While home one day with her 2-year-old daughter, Demi, Taccalite decided to search online mom blogs for inspiration to keep her little ones busy. “At first, I experimented with colored pasta, colored rice, and rainbow shaving cream, but Demi and my 9-year-old son Massimo got bored quickly with the other stuff… not to mention it made a MESS!”

She found that the only thing that would keep her kids busy for more than 5 minutes was playdough.

“The dough kept them engaged, especially when I added little things for them to make a scene or cutters to make shapes,” Taccalite said.

Taccalite’s kids would grab the tablet or TV if they were bored, but when she offered to make the dough, they would get really into the process.

She decided to create her own dough for many reasons. “I didn’t want to go out to the store with the kids, so I used what I had on hand, and secondly, I could add oils to mine to make them smell good and change the consistency to what felt nice. The store-bought dough tends to be harder and doesn’t smell as good in my opinion!” Taccalite said.

Besides the fun experience of creating the dough with her children, Taccalite says that she and her children like to make it themselves because it can be customized.

After creating some for her kids, Taccalite gave samples of dough to neighborhood kids and her work friends’ kids.  Each person who tried out the product said the same. “It kept my kid busy for longer than 5 minutes.”

With all the positive comments Taccalite received from the dough, she started to create and sell themed dough kits.

Taccalite makes the dough in her kitchen with the help from her children. “I wear gloves. I keep it super clean. It is all non- toxic, made with household ingredients. It took a while to get the consistency and smell, but with practice, I figured what worked.”

The non-toxic products she uses include vegetable oil, salt, cream of tartar, flour, glycerin, coloring, and flavor oils. When customizing each kit, Taccalite likes to use scents and colors to add to the experience.

“In the explorer kit, the black smells like dirt, the brown smells like wood, and the green smells like grass. The candy kit smells like jelly beans or cotton candy, so the kids get the whole experience! They picked their color, scent, and played with all of the accessories to create an entire scene.” Taccalite said.

Taccalite has always been into charity and giving back to her community. The Operation Underground Railroad has been a charity near and dear to her heart. With this in mind, she decided to give 5% of all proceeds she makes to the Railroad. With the business surrounding dough and her passion for donating, Dough Nation was born.

In the end, this will not be Taccalite’s full-time job, but it is a way to keep her children and other children in the area entertained during the quarantine downtime.

“My kids see what it is like to start a business. It’s a learning
experience. If you have an idea go for it,” Taccalite said.

If interested in trying a sensory kit, head to www.doughnation.shop to learn more.

 

 

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