Think Round Fine Arts is proud to present Oklahoma is not O.K./Soul Retrieval Journey 2016 ...Recalling ACEs* — Seeking Silver Linings: Books II-VII by fine artist Heidi Hardin. Hardin has created sixteen new paintings and six books that are set in a dramatic sound environment featuring the original music of her long term collaborator, Jonathan Sacks.
The exhibition examines six ACEs, adverse childhood experiences, that her two brothers, Chris and Mark, and she endured in 1964, when they were ten, eleven and thirteen years old, while under the protection and care of Hardin’s mother and step-father. She presents six stories that she wrote in 2004 while taking a memoir class for survivors of trauma conducted by Alan Kaufman. These stories were left untouched and unread, and have remained unedited from the day that they were written. Their subject matter presents a wide range of family trauma—from domestic violence and criminal child endangerment; hence the difficulty in returning to them…until now. Hardin’s intent is to demonstrate that life’s fullest potential can be reached by those who have faced even the most extreme environmental conditions even from the youngest age.
Hardin sought to remember her traumatic past, and now has remembered. Now, she seeks the silver linings born of these experiences—and there are many, not the least of which is Ms. Hardin’s birth vision, the completion of The Human Family Tree/A Walk Through Paradise… and the creation of The Center for the Human Family. For this reason, also on display in the studio gallery, will be scores of portraits of subject families who are participants in her Human Family Tree Project. These individuals, as well as friends in recovery, represent her broader family, the human family. Together they have given Hardin the courage to finally speak the truth for herself. For all this and her past experiences now in perspective, she is most grateful.
Heidi will be present to welcome visitors throughout the exhibition that will run through December 30th. Gallery hours are 8-noon Fridays and Saturdays, and by appointment.