Magic of Trauma Recovery through Art and Truth Telling
Magic is a retrospective. A look back at the process of trauma recovery. In this collection of several exhibits by Heidi Hardin, she closes the many chapters of her trauma story in this final online exhibition titled Magic: The Art and Science of Aligning the Energies of My Personality with the Intentions of My Soul…a retrospective (Magic...)
Magic... as a retrospective is fleshed out with the addition of two exhibitions: Oklahoma Is Not OK! and The Ideal Point that now have been added to Chocolate in the Garden/Plum Tree Skies, Self Portraits: K-12, & Discovering True Love: An Installation that have been on view virtually.
Twenty-three solo exhibitions and sixty-five group exhibitions later, over the course of Heidi’s career as an exhibiting fine artist, she has used her artmaking and writing practices as ways to uncover, discover, illuminate, and integrate the many toxic stresses (9 of 10 on the ACE Test*) of her childhood. Magic... is a retrospective of six exhibitions Heidi created from 2005 through 2016. These exhibitions include:
2016 Oklahoma is not O.K./Soul Retrieval Journey
2015 Self-Portraits: K-12, Heidi, Then Then,
2014 Plum Blossoms/Valentine’s Day 2010
2012 Power Lines/Cherry Tree Skies
2006 Chocolate in the Garden/Plum Tree Skies
2005 The Ideal Point/Looking into the Event Horizon…
Magic… presents a tribute to the power of art, science, people, and prayer to heal the most tragic trespasses against her from the age of five. Please join Heidi, her family, and friends at the reception as she describes in a chronological walkthrough how the power of creativity has allowed her broken places to become her strengths.
Magic... will be the last exhibit to be displayed in our Virtual Galleries online through August 31, 2021. If you have not yet experienced these immersive virtual galleries you can view them all here. Here, you will also find Salma Arastu's exhibition Meditations on Rumi. Don't miss these soulful surveys of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by esteemed Bay Area artists Salma Arastu and Heidi Hardin.
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*ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) Test:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/02/387007941/take-the-ace-quiz-and-learn-what-it-does-and-doesnt-mean
The Church—The Vision_Going Girl Oil on Aluminum Feather Panel , 1' x 5'. From Oklahoma is not OK Exhibit
The Drive to Church/Summertime and The Livin’ Ain’t Easy. Oil on Aluminum Feather Panel , 1' x 5'. Oklahoma is not OK Exhibit
Heidi Hardin is a painter, writer, and visionary. She is also a survivor of severe childhood trauma with an ACEs Score of 9/10. From 1992-2010, Heidi’s commitment to understanding the nature of family, faith, community, and culture, led her to create numerous enrichment programs for the Bayview Opera House, the community cultural center in the heart of Bayview Hunters Point in the Southeast Sector of San Francisco, California. These art-and-science-based programs are all centered on the community and individual family histories—especially the Superfund cleanup and reuse of Hunters Point Shipyard, civic leadership, community activism, intergenerational participation, the elements of happy, healthy relations with oneself and others.
Since 1987, when Heidi’s trauma recovery began, she has developed her twin visions: The Paradise Project and Center for The Human Family to house it. The Center will be a destination where “Earth is home. Humans are family.” (Please visit Think Round’s website for more information: www.thinkround.org.) The inspiration for these programs and projects were catalyzed by Heidi’s struggle with her early childhood family trauma. She was trying to remember her experiences as a young child, first by creating paintings of her family from family photos and home movies and thus was born The Paradise Project. Lynne Hardin, Heidi’s sister, created The Magic of Why© process for adults in 1994. Heidi used it and began remembering some of her pain and trauma.
As a founding member of the Mayor’s Citizen’s Advisory Committee for Reuse of Hunters Point Shipyard while teaching the children in Bayview, Heidi came to understand the profound connection between the cleanup and reuse of Hunters Point Shipyard and the cleanup and reuse of her own toxic childhood that was beginning to emerge. A serious car wreck with life-changing physical trauma and a protracted physical illness prompted Heidi to write out her trauma story, then take action to address her childhood adversity. The timing was such that Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco was offering, for the first time, the Ardicare Foundation’s Peer-Community CoCare Program and so Heidi was able to participate and was profoundly benefited.
Because of the benefits Heidi realized in addressing the impact of her ACE score, she made the choice for Think Round to partner with Ardicare and offer the Turning the Tide of Trauma™ programs and The Magic of Why© as part of Think Round’s programming. In 2017, Think Round and Ardicare collaborated with Lynne Hardin, then Chairman of the Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS), the largest school district in Oklahoma. Ardicare’s Peer-Community Program was attended first by a group of school counselors and then by a group of high school students. The development of Ardicare’s Community Leadership Class grew out of the valuable lessons learned at OKCPS, the class was piloted there, and the teacher training is currently under development.
The Ardicare Foundation has been successfully implementing the innovative, non-medical trauma resolution program, the Peer-Community CoCare Program in countries around the world since 2015, in communities that are vulnerable, underserved and most in need. These communities include impoverished townships and prisoners in South Africa, Afghan refugees and First Nations People in Canada, and communities in Haiti. Think Round, Inc. is offering collaboration with The Ardicare Foundations a new CoCare Program with people in recovery suffering from childhood trauma. This open enrollment for those in 12-Step recovery will commence on July 31, 2021. For more information about preventing and healing ACEs, please contact info@thinkround.org.
Testimonials
“I was very moved by what I heard and saw today on your Magic presentation.
All the art and shows that you have mounted add up to a very impressive and important body of work around a topic very challenging to share. You show so much bravery, determination and spiritual drive that keeps resonating for me. The world needs more of you and others who can help heal the core of this mess.
What stood out especially for me was how you talked about healing, not punishment, help for the afflicted and the perpetrators. Your big message for me was this happens a lot more than we ever want to expose but there is a way to bring in peace and transformation. The whole experience was enveloped in transformation and transcendence. I love those words and all they hold if they go in a positive direction as they usually do.
Congrats on a milestone show and how you shine through all the hard history as one who has higher powers as her best friends.
Angeles is smiling at you and all your ancestors, helpers and teachers are in total joy tonight.
Thank you for the chance to participate in an exceptional and most memorable art gallery tour.”
- Jennifer Ewing