For more resources, log on to:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/T044200.asp
http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov/

Suggested reading:
What Color is Your Diet? by David Heber, M.D. published by Regan Books
Super Foods by Michael van Straten and Barbara Griggs
Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck

Disposable Paper Tablemat

NMS, 2007, 19" x13", disposable paper tablemat, offset printed on paper

NMS fan's review

Thank you SO much for the NMS set and the beautiful bread print - I am enjoying them all so much! - Faith Hopler / Managing Editor, Apartment Therapy, http://www.thekitchn.com

I received the package and am giddy about how cool the sheets look! I'm definitely going to try to devise a way to put them up, as well as use them as placemats. I was happy to see the exhibit postcards you included, but the letterpress project really blew me away. A lover of words, art that includes words, printing, and food in general, I can't thank you enough for such a stunning inclusion! I can't wait to get it framed and hung. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and all my best! - Julie Ann Elefante

You are amazing! I just received the placemats, I was expecting 4, maybe 8, but this is just great!!! Thank you so much!
Have you thought about selling them to a wider audience in the future? They would be a big hit. Btw, I plan to frame some for our kitchen wall and am sure it will look absolutely fabulous ;) - Nicole Stich / http://www.deliciousdays.com, Munich, Germany

I can't get over your Nature Matching System installation, and that you enlisted schoolchildren to help paint it. Very inspirational. May I buy six placemats from you? I have a beautiful dark wood round dining table, that seats six around, and your placemats would look stunning on it. Keep up the great work. I look forward to reading about your future projects! - Steve Slawsky

Tattfoo, as usual you continue to make my day when I get your emails because of the constant freshness, inventiveness of your work and how can I put it — it has a way of making people feel good about themselves and the world they live in, and of course food as art is always fab! - Cindy Suriyani, Los Angeles, CA

I am sure you are inundated after today's Times piece but I would LOVE to get a placemat - if only to keep up my constant battle cry with my kids to eat their fruits and vegetables! It's a beautiful project/concept and I hope you continue to spread it. Thank you! And good luck! - Susanne Beck, Cambridge, MA

I was just reading about your mural in Brooklyn and would love to have two placemats for my little ones, to inspire colorful eating! Thanks for making the world more beautiful. - Margaret Waters, Belmont, MA

Congratulations on your recent success! I saw a photo of your placemat in today's NY Times and was drawn to it. It makes me smile every time I look at it. It's fun and seems simple, although I'm sure it wasn't. It reminds me of paint samples, except that the colors come from nature. It's a great idea, and I like that the children were involved in the mural. - Caroline Chen, Durham, NC

I'm a Baltimore-based chef and slow food activist. I looooove your work. - Megan Ryan, Baltimore, MD

I am a teacher at a middle school in Arlington, VA. I LOVE what you are doing with the diet lessons and would like to share this with my students and the art teacher. - Alexandra Gerson, Arlington, VA

The project is a wonderful idea and I hope it improves awareness and intake of fruits and vegetables among children as well as adults. I am particularly intrigued in your work as a nutritionist and cancer epidemiologist. In 2004, I published a paper reporting findings on fruit and vegetable intake and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. In a press release for the paper http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct04/gammon102704.html, I was quoted saying “"The more colors on your plate, the better, because the more colorful the fruit or vegetable, the more packed it is with nutrients." Certainly this idea is not novel but as your work exemplifies creating appealing and straightforward health messages is one step to instituting change at the individual level. Thank you for your inspiring work! - Mia M Gaudet, PhD, New York, NY

I used to make collages from paint chips as a little girl...I am always oddly fascinated by colored squares. I love the source of your inspiration for these colors, and think they are just lovely. It will also be a reminder to eat my veggies. Also an inspiration for a middle school art teacher friend for something to do with his kids. He is a genius at using only recyclable stuff for his students...I know he will find a way to take this idea and run with it. - Annie Olson, Oak Park, IL

What a wonderful idea. I think I might paint squares such as you have and install it in our dining room to remind us to eat more color. You have opened a whole new world to me! - Jennifer Presley, Cupertino, CA

Just reread my NYTimes this morning and came across the article about your "Nature Matching System". I am a homeschooling mom from NH. Our family and our homeschool cooperative spent the last six months talking about issues of sustainability. We focused a lot on food and where it comes form, why we eat what we eat, etc. Would love to share the placemats with my kids and with our group. Really loved your project which highlights and reflects the need to think about beautiful foods simply, to enjoy simply beautiful food. - Lucy White, Portsmouth, NH

I am teaching a graduate class for future dieteticans and nutrition educators. The students are working the community with a YWCA program for teen parents and pregnant teens.  One of their projects is a cooking class for ten of the teens.  I would love to have some of the placements for this effort that my students can link to the beauty and variety of vegetables while they cook. I am looking forward to learning more about what you are doing in schools.  My dream is to have a way to make food fun, healthy, and accessible. - Margaret R. Savoca, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

I'm a dietitian who works (volunteers) at a free clinic here on Hilton Head, Volunteers in Medicine.  The patients I see are primarily diabetics and others who are overweight or obese--they need to be eating more vegetables and fruits (although on a limited income this is difficult, but that's another issue).  The placemat would be a great reminder for my clients to get as much "color" in their diet as possible.  - Betty Amer, Hilton Head, SC

I just saw an article about your NMS Mural in New York. I thought it was extraordinarily beautiful.  The vibrant colors from nature against a dreary man-made landscape was startling and powerful. I am a mother and a cancer researcher and I appreciate that your artwork could so easily help a child understand the importance of a varied and healthy diet, and the beauty that nature provides for us. - Ashley Powell, Mountain View, CA

I didn't previoulsy appreciate the many ways in which color expressed a sense of tangible items and the idea that such could instill a thought process in a fanciful way, leading to an understanding of the extent of the food chain; have shared your site with my daughter, a dietician who has worked with children. -Robert Grochow, Westbury, NY

NMS-Nature Matching System mural in DUMBO, Brooklyn, New York

DOT Unveils First City Temporary Art Program in DUMBO

Monday, February 25, 2008

Collaborative effort with DUMBO Improvement District, local artists and schoolchildren launches program to enliven and beautify streets

New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and the DUMBO Improvement District unveiled today the colorful mural "Nature Matching Systems," the first installation in the DOT's Temporary Art Program, which will enliven neighborhoods by working with local artists in partnership with business improvement districts and local community organizations. The design for the mural was created by the renowned Malaysian-born artist Tattfoo Tan, who worked with 40 students aged 5-7 from nearby P.S. 307 along with 25 other neighborhood children. Together they painted hundreds of colorful panels using specialized paints matched to the colors of fruits and vegetables. The tapestry of color-8 feet high and 70 feet long-beautifies a corrugated metal fence alongside a DOT storage yard beneath the Manhattan Bridge at Front and Adams streets in DUMBO, reinforcing DOT's commitment to bring art to public spaces.

"The streets are the living room of New York City, and starting here in DUMBO-and coming soon to other neighborhoods citywide-we are transforming these rooms into galleries," said DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. "We are looking for new ways to beautify the streetscape through this new program and with our continued installation of sleek new newsstands and bus shelters, new public plazas, and Green Streets. With communities as our partners, we will capture the attention of passersby and help make hidden spaces like this one come alive."

The Temporary Art Program will create temporary art installations for City spaces that are in the need of aesthetic enhancement. The program is also designed to promote community interaction and lasting partnerships to create designs. The DOT intends to add five such projects each year. The DUMBO mural, which will remain in place for 11 months, was prompted by the DUMBO Improvement District, which approached the DOT last year hoping to paint a mural to be installed on the fence. The idea of an art project was born and Tattfoo Tan was selected by a panel comprised of representatives from the DOT, the DUMBO Improvement District, and the DUMBO community.

It is vitally important to us that our neighborhood remains a home for the arts for years to come,” said DUMBO Improvement District Executive Director Tucker Reed. "We hope that this project is just the first and we hope that many more artists will bring their creations out of their studios and onto our streets. We'd like the neighborhood itself to become a virtual gallery for our community and its visitors, and we hope to continue to work with community groups to do this."

Tan's concept for "Nature Matching Systems" is designed to creatively educate children about eating their fruits and vegetables. The students attended workshops where Tan asked them to select a favorite fruit or vegetable, whose color the students then painted onto panels. Each of these panels was then incorporated into the mural, containing other panels painted by Tan.
"NMS hopes to re-educate our youngsters back to healthy eating habits, but not to deprive them of the fun and experience of eating colorful real food," said Tan. "Color is such a captivating element of food, but too often it's used to make highly processed junk food, which mimics nature's intention of using color to nourish us. NMS is not only art for art's sake but it also carries a deeper social and educational value that will carry on even after the mural is gone."

"PS 307 has a strong commitment to the arts," said Principal Roberta Davenport. "My school community is thrilled that our students had the opportunity to participate in this wonderful community arts project."

Additional groups involved in the project include the DUMBO Neighborhood Association, the DUMBO Parents Organization and the d.u.m.b.o. Arts Center.

NMS, 2008, temporary mural until Jan 9, 2009, 65'w x 8'h, exterior grade MDO panels, exterior quality paints, right under the Manhattan Bridge overpass on Front Street, between Adams Street and Pearl Street in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

Students of P.S. 307 / Dr. Daniel Hale Williams Elementary School and young residents of DUMBO are helping to paint a color square.

NMS-Nature Matching System recipe

NMS-Nature Matching System commissioned by Empire State Partnerships for their Summer Seminar - Habit of the Creative Mind of at C.W. Post Campus, Brookville, New York

The Empire State Partnerships Summer Seminar is designed to support partnerships between cultural organizations and schools which integrate the arts into the curriculum. Teachers, teaching artists and administrators will attend, whether or not their partnership receives funding from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Over 350 arts-in-education professionals will explore the theme, "Habits of the Creative Mind," through a variety of events: workshops, creativity labs, discussion groups, keynote address and plenary meetings. Seminar attendees also will have opportunities to meet with consultants and to plan for the upcoming year, as part of their team and with their regional network groups. I was invited as a professional artist to attend the Creativity Labs where I presented Nature Matching System in the form of edible art where they have a chance to work together to create a dish that can be enjoy and nourishes both the mind and the body.

NMS-Nature Matching System fruits sticker

Inspired by fruits sticker of various design, I design my own NMS sticker. It was used on fresh fruits that was a gave away item at the opening of Port Authority Bus Terminal's mural. It is also a guerrilla art where I place these sticker at random fresh produce at supermarket.

NMS-Nature Matching System mural at Port Authority Bus Terminal, New York

Transformation of 8th Ave Continues with one of the Largest Public Art Projects in Bus Terminal’s History.

July 17, 2008

As part of the ongoing transformation of 8th Avenue and the 42nd Street area, a new work of public art by New York artist Tattfoo Tan was unveiled today in Midtown Manhattan through a partnership between the Fashion Center Business Improvement District and the Times Square Alliance.

The giant grid of color, inspired by fresh fruits and vegetables, is one of largest public art projects ever at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, which is located in the Fashion District. Through the “NMS - Nature Matching System”, the thousands of daily visitors can visually learn the colors that contribute to a healthy lifestyle. The vinyl mural is 13 ft high and 180 ft wide and will run in the street-level windows on 8th Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets and along 42nd Street.

“Community projects like this are a welcome addition to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and another example of our continued commitment to our neighbors,” said Steve Napolitano, Bus Terminal Manager for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “This impressive work of art will help to further integrate the Port Authority Bus Terminal into the boldly-colored and brightly-lit environment of New York City.”

The “Nature Matching System” project on the bus terminal boldly reminds New Yorkers “to take your daily dose of color.” Tattfoo Tan precisely matched the healthy colors of 88 fresh fruits and vegetables through Photoshop software into a Pantone or paint chip display system. He wrote: “The shades of color displayed at farmers’ markets are more than skin deep, reflecting the inner potential of every fruit and vegetable; intense colors might even be called nature’s nutrition labels.”

“This latest public art project is another example of the continued Renaissance of the 8th Avenue corridor,” said Barbara Randall, Executive Director of the Fashion Center BID. “The addition of a work by such a respected artist, further serves to enhance the pedestrian experience and the cultural value of the Fashion Center and Times Square areas.”

“8th Avenue is already emerging as an Avenue of Architecture, and thanks to projects like this one at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, it’s also starting to stake a claim as an Avenue of Art,” said Times Square Alliance President Tim Tompkins. “This is a great example of the ways in which the creative energy of both Times Square and the Fashion District is making its mark on Eighth Avenue.”

NMS, 2008, temporary mural, printed vinyl on glass window, covering one whole block of Port Authority Bus Terminal.

NMS-Nature Matching System Legend

NMS is a unique color that cannot be match to other colors, but the below legend is the closes matches to Process Color, Pantone Matching System and Behrs Paint.