We stepped out of the airport into the thick early morning mist of New Delhi. A cacophony of horns serenades us as I stare out the window of our taxi, fixated on the glowing pink sun rising lazily and majestically over the horizon of flat cement rooftops and palm trees. On the sidewalk, men bathe at water spigots, a woman brushes her teeth, another sweeps the sidewalk. I smile as we cruise by a multitude of monkeys mingling with hairy pink wild boars and a goat. Delhi is waking up. The world seems crisper and more alive and I understand the difference must be me. I am so excited to be here, so thrilled to embark on this seven thousand road-mile quest through India and to meet all the kids along our route, to paint with them and to see what they create.
Over the next five years we will take Hearts of the World to twelve new countries, inviting children to explore their passions and aspirations to unlock their unique potential by expressing themselves creatively through painting. We will be learning and sharing with you what lives in the hearts of children all over the world, to celebrate our diversity and discover what is fundamental to us all.
We are starting with India because of its unique and rapidly changing culture and because we both love this country very much. The core of our India tour team consists of two people; myself, and my partner Orien McNeill, a compelling artist and admirer of the colorful chaos and eccentricities of India. We will be visited periodically along our route by other team members and friends.
For this three and a half month India tour we will host at least twelve Hearts of the World workshops with a variety of Indian children from street kids and orphans, the deaf and blind, to the students at a school for gifted children, and others at a military academy. (Check out our itinerary). After a tutorial in the basics of painting and a session of personal exploration and contemplation, the children are each given the outline of a stylized anatomical heart on thick paper along with a pencil, brushes and paints. We invite them to express their feelings, passions and dreams for life by painting the unique pictures of their hearts.
I know there are so many stories ahead of us, so many lessons and challenges and beautiful moments. And we will be sharing it all with you three times per week. For the next one hundred and five days, we will write here about the stories of the Hearts of the World while we travel across the diverse cultural landscapes of India. We invite you to come along with us by reading our adventures here on this blog.
We want to give a special shout-out and thanks to our supporters, to Rick Steves and his European travel company for generously sponsoring the project and sharing our stories with his travel fans, to Golden Acrylics for equipping us with brilliant, quality paints for the workshops, to the members of our team who are supporting us from home and to everyone who contributed to our fundraising campaign and came to our inaugural benefit, the Monochromatic Costume Ball. We love you so much! This project would not be happening without you. Thank you from the bottoms of our… yeah.
Thank you, we love you.
Tomorrow we will meet Pragati, the sister of a friend of mine who lives here in Delhi, and begin the search to buy or rent a vehicle, which we will outfit for our trip and paint as we go... More soon~
I know there are so many stories ahead of us, so many lessons and challenges and beautiful moments. And we will be sharing it all with you three times per week. For the next one hundred and five days, we will write here about the stories of the Hearts of the World while we travel across the diverse cultural landscapes of India. We invite you to come along with us by reading our adventures here on this blog.
We want to give a special shout-out and thanks to our supporters, to Rick Steves and his European travel company for generously sponsoring the project and sharing our stories with his travel fans, to Golden Acrylics for equipping us with brilliant, quality paints for the workshops, to the members of our team who are supporting us from home and to everyone who contributed to our fundraising campaign and came to our inaugural benefit, the Monochromatic Costume Ball. We love you so much! This project would not be happening without you. Thank you from the bottoms of our… yeah.
Thank you, we love you.
Tomorrow we will meet Pragati, the sister of a friend of mine who lives here in Delhi, and begin the search to buy or rent a vehicle, which we will outfit for our trip and paint as we go... More soon~