Around The Table: Stories Of The Food We Love Exhibit

Recently I visited the New York Botanical Gardens to see the Around The Table: Stories Of The Food We Love exhibit.

Specifically, I saw about half of the 32 tables designed by artists living or working in the Bronx on display throughout the Garden. Below are some of my favorites.

Table

Textile-Knit Artist Ruth Marshall‘s fine art textile table design stands out! It explores the creative possibilities of knotting. She accurately depicts various vegetables with her versatile, brightly colored nylon material (paracord and zip ties) on wood.

Table

Artist Reina Mia Brill‘s design showcases different edible flowers. The artist used paper seed packets, acrylic paint, gel medium, and resin on wood. She is the recipient of a Bronx Council for the Arts Grant as well as a New York Foundation on the Arts Fellowship.

Table

Of course, Santina Amato‘s Per La Mamma Mia table design effortlessly captured the love of my Italian heritage. Her red and white checkerboard acrylic paint design on wood made visiting the Home Gardening Center a must! The artist’s muse is bread dough and relates to her immigrant childhood, where the dough was no foreign matter. Her first memory and experience of femininity and the power of creation (and potentially female desire) were watching her mother knead this soft, white, voluptuous material on our kitchen table. Folding the dough over onto itself and pushing her whole body towards it, she transformed the ingredients of flour and water into a living organism, created for both our oral pleasure and life sustenance.

Artist Matthew López-Jensen‘s display, “Lamb’s Quarters: A Love Story,” most closely resembles Fine Artist Susan McCaslin‘s work for Divabetic’s Plate Poetry Project. Both displays’ use of words is similar.

Matthew López-Jensen’s original essay across the top of the table celebrates the connection between foraging, love, and queer identity (available in Spanish and English). He used text, stain, and acrylic paint on wood for “Lamb’s Quarters: A Love Story.”

Fine Artist, Susan McCaslin‘s work for Divabetic’s Plate Poetry Project was exhibited at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and the Mosaic Central Farm Market in Mosiac, VA.

Plate Poetry Project depicted people’s conversations while eating on dishware at a dinner table. Visitors were encouraged to interact with the table and take apart the place settings to read each statement.

Eating is such a central part of our diabetes lives that food becomes associated with almost everything we do. We eat if we’re happy, sad, angry, celebrating, grieving, lonely, or bored. Emotions become connected with food. When you eat based on your emotions, it can hinder your diabetes wellness management.

Susan‘s display, “What Words Do You Bring To The Table?” depicts the different thoughts and emotions related to eating.

Divabetic’s Plate Poetry “What’s On Your Plate?” workshops focus on the emotions related to eating for people at risk, affected by and living with diabetes. Our Plate Poetry Project video testimonials aim to assess the emotions associated with managing diabetes and the underlying reasons attributed to those emotions.

Watch this video to find out more about the artists participating in the Around The Table: Stories Of The Food We Love exhibit.

. Each one-of-a-kind table will celebrate the cultural and historical significance of crops and plant-based food traditions—and encourage sitting, sharing, and storytelling.

Barry Manilow’s classic hit, “I Made It Through The Rain,” sparks real-life confessions about overcoming challenges related to diabetes self-care on this episode of Divabetic’s monthly podcast. Guests include The First Lady of Def Jam Alyson Williams, Poet Lorraine Brooks, Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDCES, diabetes advocate, blogger, and mentor FatCatAnna. Music from The Essential Barry Manilow courtesy of SONY Music. Hosted by Mr. Divabetic.