THE HUMAN FAMILY TREE/A WALK THROUGH PARADISE...SEVEN INSTALLATIONS
WHERE WE ARE GOING…
The Paradise Project is conceived to be a meditation for artists worldwide to join together to complete and envision changing (evolving) over time. The Paradise Project is also conceived as a model for artists, called upon globally, and the families they paint as a vehicle to spiritualize the human body and all human faiths and cultures.
In 2018, exhibition of The Families of Abraham (Jews, Christians, Muslims), Parts I, II, & III of The Paradise Project, were presented simultaneously at four venues in San Francisco just before Covid struck the world. Read below for more information and visit our YouTube channel to view the four short films created of her presentations to San Franciscans who attended the opening receptions at each site.
Operating under Think Round’s code of ethics: Earth is home. Humans are family; we invite artists everywhere to create their own installations of your own families and faith. In the near future, Think Round will request proposals so that any artist working in any media from anywhere in the world can capture the remaining three installations or replace the existing ones created by Heidi Hardin.
Ms. Hardin knows she is not the arbiter of The Human Family Tree or the Walk Through Paradise this project invokes. She understands the dangers of cultural appropriation, the appearance of self-dealing that has brought her personal healing from childhood trauma to a close through this project. She freely surrenders all aspects of this idea, The Paradise Project, to artists worldwide and challenges them to lead the way from here on out. As this RFP is being established, Ms. Hardin will complete Part IV of the Paradise Project, Family Dharma (Hindus & Sikhs), that will open October 7, 2023, with a reception, talks, and launch of a the virtual Center for the Human Family. This has been yet another venture into her personal healing and growth, marked by genuine humility as more than 50 interns have volunteered to create it and by the opportunity to preview it at The Parliament of World Religions in Chicago on August 16th, 2023.
If the video on page six of this presentation will not play, please scan this QR Code with your cellphone. The one-minute video will play there.
THE PARADISE MANDALA
Think Round, Inc. presents: a video walkthrough of the Human Family Tree.
Original artworks, original concept by Heidi Hardin
Original music by Jonathan Sacks
3D model by Oro Fernandez
WHERE WE’VE BEEN…
THINK ROUND’S PRESS RELEASE FROM SEPTEMBER 2019
Think Round Fine Arts Launches Innovative Multi-Location Exhibit of Peace, Understanding, and Unity for Humankind. Encouraging Global Unity with Pioneering Exhibit - "Families of Abraham"
Art that Transcends Boundaries!
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — September 29th, 2019 —Think Round Fine Arts announces their groundbreaking exhibit and the inaugural launch of Families of Abraham. This multi-destination art exhibit demonstrates unity in diversity. The concept and art show were 20-years in the making by Heidi Hardin, Executive Director and Founder of Think Round, Inc. and Think Round Fine Arts. In the current social landscape these stories and struggles are more important than ever to be represented and told. According to the United Nations, "The number of international migrants worldwide has continued to grow over the past seventeen years, reaching 258 million in 2017." *
Families of Abraham (Jews, Christians, and Muslims), presents a selection of 234 portraits of four Jewish, four Muslim, and four Christian families of different ethnicity who immigrated to America to make their homes and start a new life. These family portraits will be on display September 29th - December 29th, 2019 at the following locations: Think Round Fine Arts, Calvary Presbyterian Church, Sherith Israel, and the Islamic Society of San Francisco. This show of interfaith camaraderie, respect, and admiration is to be a catalyst to unify all.
Heidi Hardin explains, “It is my belief that the peoples of the earth live within webs of cultural and social forces, much as stars and planets exist within webs of natural forces that both bind them together and keep them apart. Though we seem to live as separate individuals, nations, cultures, and faiths, in truth we are one in our humanity.”
Family photo albums have been transcribed into Hardin's genre paintings that offer an unexpected window into the shared human experiences that bridge the personal and the universal. Her vision of families is an evocative multimedia meditation on the developmental and archetypal experiences we share within our own families, regardless of faith, culture, or ethnicity. On a symbolic level, these installations explore ideas about cultural self-definition, the pervasiveness of the American dream, the universality of, and new directions imagined for, the human family and their faiths.
“This unique and thoughtful exhibit is a great tribute to all immigrants of every culture, tradition, and age. Represented are the three universal journeys of every human being's experiences—the individual journey, the relational journey, and the collective journey. It is not be missed.” –Angeles Arrien, Ph.D., Cultural Anthropologist.
A full program of related activities will accompany The Families of Abraham (family art-making, school tours, salon/suppers, and more)! For details of these additional activities and exhibition and receptions dates at all four sites, please visit https://www.thinkround.org/events-1#/current-events.
Think Round, Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Its mission is to demonstrate life’s fullest potential through the arts and sciences, especially where environmental concerns meet neighborhoods and families. Think Round’s programming reflects the same core concerns that guide their artists and their artwork. These include environmental awareness, universal spirituality, and the power of creativity to transform people's lives.
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Artist Statement from August 2019
As one of seven children, I was raised in a chaotic, Christian home in which I developed a strong belief in Jesus as my brother. Each of my parents had serious, multiple addictions. I forgot much of my childhood due to trauma. To remember my childhood, I began making paintings using my own family photos and home movies as source material, when I was a graduate student in my twenties As I walked this path, I became passionate to know how the distilled wisdom of world religions is taught in the homes of families practicing other faiths.
I have come to believe that the common unifying core of all religions center upon a belief in God, a belief in the existence of the human soul or eternal spirit, and the idea that God is LOVE. The question then became, what is LOVE? What I learned at home was not LOVE, it was abuse that left me with the five core symptoms of codependence.[1] These symptoms are an inability to set boundaries; own my own reality; experience reality moderately; experience appropriate levels of self-esteem, and get my own needs and wants met. Now, gratefully sober for 31 years - I have come to believe in God by finding the ability to respond to, take responsibility for, my desperate need to develop these life skills.
Today, thanks to advances in medical science and technology, we live longer and grow closer to becoming one in our humanity. It is my belief that to become whole, we can decide to manifest heaven on Earth, not wait for happily ever after, but rather create happily ever now. I also believe that every person can awaken to their own inner teacher and develop a Higher Power of their own understanding[2]. In doing this, I, found God’s Will for me, which is to know and understand the truth for myself—about my own life. To do this, I have had to trudge the road to my happy destiny. Because my childhood was so difficult, this trudge has not been easy or fun; however, my experience has proven to me that it beats the alternative of staying numb to my feelings, dissociating, and being separated from the love of God within me.
LOVE is first taught in the family home; therefore, my first dream is to be among leaders who encourage truly loving homes. LOVE is first taught outside the home through the efforts of the major world religions—often by teaching the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you have them do unto you; therefore, my second dream is to be among leaders ending the suppression of women and children by male-dominated world religions. In my ME TOO experience, this suppression of children and of women is NOT LOVE. Thanks to the help of hundreds, creating the seven installations of the Paradise Project has given me a broader view of and deeper insight into how to manifest and accomplish these two dreams.
At Think Round, Inc. we are calling on everyone around the world to prioritize preventing toxic stress of children and to prioritize healing all adults with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)[3]. To be a part of living the Golden Rule, and manifesting heaven on earth, please join the movement to end ACEs in America and around the world.
About The Paradise Project…
To this end, in September, Think Round will announce the inaugural launch of our groundbreaking exhibit, Families of Abraham (Jews, Christians, Muslims). This multi-destination art exhibit demonstrates unity in diversity. The concept and art show were 20-years in the making by me, Heidi Hardin. Families of Abraham presents 190 of 234 portraits of four: Jewish, Muslim, and Christian families of different ethnicity who immigrated to America to make their homes and start a new life. These portraits will be displayed September 29th - December 29th, 2019 at four locations: Think Round Fine Arts, Calvary Presbyterian Church, Sherith Israel, and the Islamic Society of San Francisco. This demonstration of interfaith camaraderie, respect, and admiration is to be a catalyst to unify these families of Abraham. In today’s social and political landscape these family stories and struggles are more important than ever to be represented and told.
Accompanying Families of Abraham, Think Round, Inc. will offer a full program of other activities for children and families. On Saturday mornings beginning October through December, we will be teaching ABRAHAMIC FAMILY ART MAKING CLASSES. On the 2nd Tuesday evening of every month, we will host ABRAHAMIC HUMAN FAMILY SUPPERS/SALONS. Friday afternoons, we will host K-12 SCHOOL TOURS & ART ACTIVITIES, and on Sunday afternoons GUIDED WALK THROUGH MEDITATIONS. In December, we will host a day-long PROCESS SESSION for remembering your soul titled, MAGIC OF WHY®.
For information for Think Round Fine Arts or our related events for this exhibition, please visit our website: https://www.thinkround.org/events-1 If you would like to make a donation to this non-profit - click on link: Donate to Think Round, Inc.
Inter-religious learning has been a central focus of Think Round since 2003, when The Human Family Tree/A Walk Through Paradise…seven installations, (The Paradise Project...) was birthed in the writing of a Creative Capital grant. Paradise… centers on families who are followers of various major world religions. Each successive installation (seven in all) focuses on eleven religions, presenting 78 paintings in a multimedia installation including touching objects, environmental displays, and original music. [Please see a map of the layout of all seven installations and a five-minute 3D video of it (and the 546 paintings within it) at our website: https://www.thinkround.org/index#/the-human-family-tree-project.] All paintings are based on photographs of the past century of families of different ethnicity, who stand as icons for all the people who have journeyed to America to make their home and start a new life. In each installation is a labyrinth of footpaths and columns replicating the mythic Tree of Life will create a “walk through paradise” among the paintings. To complete The Paradise Project…, every two years, another installation of additional major world religions will be presented with curricula similarly tailored to each faith, i.e. Hindus/Sikhs, Buddhists/Jain, Taoist/Confusions, Indigenous. — Heidi Hardin, August 2019
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[1] Pia Melody, Facing Codependence
[2] Bill Wilson, The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
[3] Nadine Burke-Harris, The Deepest Well, and her TedTalk on the subject of ACEs at: