Author: Nicolina Tyler

Peru! I am here!
I’ve wanted to travel to this country for so long. It is one place that I’ve felt has called me. Peru is endlessly fascinating with its coast, mountains and jungle, its indigenous cultures, colorful tapestries, unique food, rich and complicated history….. and the mysteries of the Amazon rainforest.

I came here on a kind of whim, getting my ticket one week prior to the trip. I’m traveling with my friend, and roommate, Juliet. She is an actor from England and a fellow intrepid. With a spirit of exploration, we are both up for whatever this enchanted country brings us.

Our objective is to know Peru as fully as we can in these three weeks, and to invite indigenous communities to participate in the Hearts of the World project. (Http://heartsoftheworld.org)

What is in the heart of someone who has spent their entire lives in Amazon? Someone who lives immersed in the wonders of nature– far removed from the Western world and capitalism?

How can we find these communities, who’s traditional culture is still intact?
Can we avoid the tourist-trap promises of ‘authentic Amazonian experiences’ and break through to the heart of something real?

This spontaneous journey to Peru is what I call a ‘connect the dots adventure,’ one of my favorite ways to travel. I put the word out to my community on Facebook, asking people for connections in Peru and explaining our intention. Many responded and now with this handful of contacts, we ‘dot…..dot…dot….’ all the way to our unforeseen destinations, ‘playing it by ear,’ unfolding the journey as we go.

For me, traveling like this is so much more exciting than a fully planned itinerary. We don’t know what will happen, where we will end up. We have our objective and we do our best, follow our noses (and our guts), connect with local people as we go, ask them what they know, and we make it happen~ whatever happens…. so here we go!

We don’t know what the mysteries of Peru will bring us, but the sweet, biting, jungle breeze beckons, and the adventure in our hearts pulls us forward~
…

When was the last time you painted?

The last time you thought about your dreams?

I’d like to invite all of you to the upcoming HotW East Village exhibition and open painting table in Tompkins Square Park, NYC. There, we will share photographs, stories and the artwork from our 8,000 road-mile HotW tour around India.

In addition, we will install a 100 ft table in the center of the park and invite the public to explore their inner worlds and paint a heart, expressing their dreams and aspirations for life.

So if you are in NY, join us, dream, express and come say hello!

The Hearts of the East Village. Tompkins Square Park, NYC, 

Sunday August, 2nd. 1pm – 5pm

During our last week in India, we were invited by Bachpan Bachao Andolan to host one last Hearts of the World program in India with children rescued from bonded child laborer at Mukti Ashram in Delhi.

Many of the kids at the ashram had scars all over their hands from cutting and welding steel wire. Most of the kids I spoke with were very recently rescued from a bindi factory. They were thirsty to learn and very interested in the program, listening earnestly as we explained the HotW project.

Bachpan Bachao Andolan, founded by Nobel Prize laureate Kailash Satyarti has rescued over 80,000 children in India. Mukti Ashram is essentially a holding place, a “sanctuary” for kids rescued from factories etc. before they are returned to their parents or placed in orphanages.

We worked with seventy kids who ranged in age from 11-17. After asking them to write their names on their program sheets I was immediately reminded of the seriousness of their situation. They all sat silent, frozen… no one knew how to write their own name. 

The concept of a dream for life was unheard of to these kids. More so than any I have ever met. It was a completely foreign concept, no one had ever told them they could have a dream. It was very difficult, nearly impossible for them to imagine doing something other than factory work. Some of them had labored in these factories since they were six years old. It’s all they knew. They expected to work like this for their entire lives.

One ten year old boy who was rescued from sixteen hour workdays in a bindi factory (making roughly $1/day) painted little flowers all around his heart. When asked what they were, he said they were bindis. “How about what is inside your heart?” I asked. 

He said, “I don’t know yet what is in my heart, but there are no bindis there.”

I cannot show the faces or share the names of of these kids as they need to be protected. But I will tell you that in each of their portraits that we took, there is a hardness, their brows are furrowed, not one of them smiled. They don’t have the eyes of children, but intense eyes like adults who’ve seen years of difficulty and struggle. It was a very emotional day for me. I want to adopt all these kids and give them a fighting chance at life, I want to spend more time with them, but we are leaving tomorrow. They need so much more help to start thinking outside the factory box.

I hope the seeds planted during our program will grow in these kids and that they will dare to dream. It’s difficult days like these that I am reminded of the importance of my own dream to build a Hearts of the World center, a place kids can come for an extended series of workshops to explore their potential and aspirations for life in a safe, encouraging environment… a dream to make possible more dreams~ a “dream factory” run by passionate teachers, where no one labors. 

We are heading back to NYC tonight~ Soon we will share the artwork and dreams of the Hearts of India at a public exhibition in Manhattan.

I will never forget these kids.

We are back in Delhi! We’ve come full circle, having traveled over 12,000 km over the last three months. Along the way we’ve hosted twelve Hearts of the World workshops, inviting young people to explore their inner worlds through the meditative act of painting. 

Each child painted their unique heart and now it’s time to share their stories and artwork at the upcoming exhibition, “The Hearts of India.”  Free and open to the public.

To all of you in Delhi on June 20th, you are invited to come represent India and paint what’s in your heart to be part of the global mosaic of HeartsoftheWorld.org stories. To those of you far away, you can check out the show online on our FB page.

Featuring:
-Selections of over 500 “heart paintings” from the India tour
-Ice GOLA, Pani Puri and fresh mint lime juices for all
-Video screenings by Monkey Projects Studio and HotW
-On display, our artistically customized touring vehicle
-Afterparty at nearby (A/C) Hauz Khas location until late
-aaaaaannnnd CAMEL RIDES!

7-10pm at Lokayata Art Gallery, Hauz Khas Village, Delhi

FB Event Link: goo.gl/L7h5nw

Join us!

We held our largest workshop to date yesterday. 400 students at Sagar Manni High School in Sirsa, Haryana explored their life purpose and expressed their hearts through painting. As I spoke with them they shared many poignant stories with me. Hearts of the World has traveled to twelve countries so far and one thing I’ve noticed about the young people of India is that the vast majority of them paint in their hearts not their own dreams, but the desires of their parents.

When asked about their greatest dream for life I can say that possibly 75% of students answer the same, “DOCTOR.” When we ask them why, many of them don’t know. Many respond with something to the effect of “because my parents want it.”

“My parents want me to be a doctor, but I want to be a teacher. I say, a teacher can bring our country many more doctors, but a doctor cannot bring us any more teachers.” 

“My heart is named, ‘Please don’t kill my dream.’ My parents want me to be a doctor, but I want to be a fashion designer. I would be a much better fashion designer than a doctor.”

There are 1.25 billion people in India, more than 50% of them are below the age of 25.

How many doctors can a country have? What kind of doctors will they be?

While I was in New York this Spring I had the pleasure of painting a Hearts of the World mural on Rockaway Beach Boulevard for Beautify Earth. This organization is bringing color and revitalization to the Rockaway Beach community, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Residents of Rockaway were invited to paint in their own unique heart. Locals lined up on the sidewalk to wait for their turn to express themselves in paint. When they were finished filling their heart with their thoughts, emotions, passions and dreams, we pasted them up to the wall. 

A mother fills her heart with the prints of her children’s hands and feet.

The finished Hearts of the World Mural

I was really touched to receive this poem, written by long-time Rockaway resident Ed Broderick, Have a read:

Seaside  Garden

of

Hearts and Flowers

Open to all of natures powers

Endures kanes and showers

Accepts the chill of deepest snow

Glories in the summers glow

A pure rainbow may be born

After the curse of a SANDY storm

Bows may have many ends

All full of hopes dreams and bends

 Hundreds of us who have seen this

Pause Reflect and silently Wish 

For our Bow’s end to fulfill

Our needs by GOD’S Will

 Ed Broderick

Hearts of the World with NYU #HeartsofTheWorld

I was commissioned by the U.S. Embassy to paint a mural for the Instituto Chileno Norteamericano in Valparaiso, Chile.  I wanted to collaborate with local artists so I chose two of my favorite street artists in Valpo:  Charqui Punk and La Robot de Madera.

The painting is a mash-up of indigenous imagery from Chile and North America including the Mapuche, La Tirana, and the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest. 

We set up at Charqui’s place, cranked the music and jammed.