Dive through the controversy surrounding modernist women artists and enter a world filled with vivid colors, bright patterns and stunning paintings. The unique styles of Georgia O’Keeffe, Marguerite Zorach, Helen Torr and Florine Stettheimer all result in iconic paintings in this group show, “Women Modernists of New York” at Portland Museum of Art. These four women committed their lives to art whether they were rich or poor, popular or shy.

Walking into the spacious, chic gallery felt overwhelming. Stunning art hung on the walls leaving the viewer to question the paintings’ ages.

The friendly tour guide took us to the far wall of the show and began to describe the life of artist Marguerite Zorach. Zorach was a mother and an artist who used a lot of symbolism in her paintings. She even took on embroidery considering it was easier to juggle with her kids. Next was Florine Stettheimer’s art. Apparently, her art did not receive much recognition in her time. Her artwork features the wealthy men and women of the early 1900s at public events, parks and beaches. She used light, airy colors to capture the aristocrats in their tracks.

Then we saw Georgia

O’Keeffe’s paintings. O’Keeffe painted close-ups of flowers with breathtaking colors put into the right places. However, controversy began to crowd around O’Keeffe’s paintings when the public started to believe them extremely sexual and that they were not “art.” Lastly we viewed Helen Torr’s paintings. Helen’s paintings were nautical and used shades of gray and blue. Her paintings took a more realistic turn on modernism, but are equal in beauty to Zorach, Stettheimer and O’Keeffe’s.

Tag along with the Portland Museum of Art on a journey that displays the abstract paintings and “busy, mom-friendly” embroidery of Marguerite Zorach, Georgia O’Keeffe’s bold flower close-ups, Florine Stettheimer’s paintings of public events, parks and beaches, and Helen Torr’s nautical paintings that feature the shores of New York and Long Island. Come meet the friendly staff at the Portland Museum of Art today and travel back to the early 1900s to see the clean, right brush strokes put into place by the women who started it all, risked it all and demanded the rights they deserved.

Long story short, don’t see this as just another review, use this as an opportunity to embrace what art really is: the ability to express yourself.

“Stop Here, This is the Place: A Year in Motherland” is the heartwarming story created by two mothers who try to slow down time and pay attention. Susan Conley, a Maine writer, and Winky Lewis, a photographer, despite their jam-packed lives of commotion, team up in the pursuit of capturing the simple pleasures of life.

As mothers, they fear they’re going to look back and somehow their children’s lives will have slipped from between their outstretched arms. The dearest of memories discarded like flotsam and jetsam and lost into the slippery waves of never-ending time.

The book expressed a sense of awareness, a warning. Almost that time itself is alive, a sensitive thing not to be meddled with and not to be wasted. We often get caught up in our lives – something always needs to be done, there’s always somewhere to be, and there is always someone to please. We try to stuff our lives with as much as we possibly can, often not leaving enough room for those we love the most.

Conley and Lewis give us a taste of their lives week by week, for 52 weeks. In week 11 of the book, there is a photograph of Lewis’s daughter where she has a dog’s paw cupped in her hand, which I interpreted as a symbol of love and promise never to part. It was a simple gesture yet so full of meaning and unconditional love.

I felt as if every page opened the door to a new beginning, another chapter. Simply stated, just another week in the magical world of Motherland.

“We spin and spin and spin and don’t ever let go.” – Susan Conley

The chicken burrito was the best I have ever tasted. When I bit into it, a bomb of flavors and textures assaulted my mouth. Avocado! Grilled chicken! Rice! Beans! Tortilla! And a little bit of spice screamed for attention in my mouth. Not only that, the textures were magnificent. The guacamole was not too clumpy, not too smooth. The chicken was hearty and flavorful. Admittedly, the rice was not totally perfect; it was a little too sloppy (more like it belonged in a chili soup). The beans were not too hard, not too squishy. The tortilla was warm, soft and a little bit chewy – just right. The spice was not overpowering, but still enough to add a kick. It felt like I was biting into a dance-off of flavors, everything spinning and twirling around in my mouth, but contained neatly in one small package.

If you’re wondering where I got this super burrito, it came from El Corazon, the red food truck. Usually parked at the corner of Spring and Temple streets most weekdays, El Corazon is easy to recognize with its dark-red coloring and vibrant day-of-the-dead skull.

When I asked co-owner April Perry where the ingenious recipes came from, she replied that they came from her step-father, who is from Southern Arizona. It’s a family business. She had to poke her head out of the back of the truck to speak to us while she continued to work the line. “When we lived in California, there was a lot of Mexican culture. When we moved to Maine, we wanted to bring that with us.” After talking to April, the food was ready, and I enjoyed the best burrito of my life. El Corazon is a good place to stop by on lunch break, and if you do, you’ll be in for a tasty surprise.

Upon entering, the fluorescent lights lit up my eyes. “The Genuine Article,” an installation at SPACE Gallery in Portland, is designed to look like a conventional dive bar. The art is tacky in a good way; it’s colorful, playful and whimsical. The cheap wood paneling on the walls was actually hand painted by Leon Benn and Seth Gass, the artists in charge of the show. Benn and Gass also chose the pieces that are displayed in the installation, asking their artist friends to send them pieces.

Nat May, the executive director of Space, explained, “The artists acted as the curators in this show.”

There’s everything from a taxidermy Kermit the Frog pinned to the wall, to a stained glass hanging lampshade. On the back wall, black and white sequins create the silhouette of Darth Vader on a fake door. According to SPACE’s online description, “This installation situates itself in the greater trajectory of kitsch, pop and decorative art.”

You might as well cancel your afternoon plans, and head to this show to sit on the center benches and watch vibrant, contrasting lights flicker. Above all, this installation is memorable and something to be experienced with all your senses as a whole. The slightly musty smell ties well with the theme of the rest of the room and the sound of the murmuring of the passersby walking up and down the busy Portland street just outside.

SPACE Gallery is located at 538 Congress St., and the exhibition is open to the public from June 23 to Sept. 23.