Heart of Chaos Artisan Collective

Heart of Chaos is the first youth created business created under the incubator initiative. Its founder is former at-risk young adult and emerging artist Curtis Manzano (see sample of art) with the financial and inspirational support of Catalyst for Youth. The core idea was to provide a venue for other emerging and under-recognized fine artists, writers, poets, and photographers to showcase and market their work. Heart of Chaos also has a community outreach program that partners with other groups and has established a weekly art class in San Jose's juvenile hall. (See outreach program) To visit this online artisan collective, see their work and meet these dynamic and wildly creative young people go to www.heartofchaos.net To attend the art exhibits held at Brooks College of Sunnyvale every May and November, go the Heart of Chaos website and download PDF guidelines and entry form.

Art Exhibit Pictures and Slide Shows

• June 2003 Youth on Fire Art Exhibit at American Indian Educational Center (click here).

• November 05 Youth on Fire Art Exhibit at Brooks, click here for first set and here for the second.

• May, 2006 Down the Rabbit Hole Art Exhibit, click here.

• November, 2006 Urban Geography Art Exhibit, click here.

Innate Wholeness or "Strange Attractor" at the Heart of Chaos

The idea behind the name Heart of Chaos comes from the new science of quantum mechanics that includes Chaos theory. Apparently if an open, chaotic system is tracked long enough over time, it does not break down as was once expected, but reveals instead a unique (to that system) image. This hidden wholeness resides at the heart of chaos and is called a strange attractor because it has power to align and propel the whole system toward a higher level of order.

Young people struggle to find themselves and their gifts and this process is characterisitically chaotic —especially when observed by those with more life experience and stability. Despite their outwardly chaotic lives, however, they have a hidden wholeness, an innate image or mark of character that seeks to guide and shape them from within. While they search and struggle, Catalyst tends the fire of their creativity and mirrors their gifts back to them until they can see their path. In this ever changing, mentoring dance, we facilitate their growth and movement toward personal power and authentic authority.

The following poem by Joanne Hobbs describes this population that Catalyst seeks to support.

YOUTH ON FIRE

Do not look for us in your buildings;
we are not there.
We are the long shadows and the feet running through the alleys.
We are the murmur in the streets, the whispered warning of sirens,
and the loud and soft voices of youth crying out, unheard.

Do not look for us in your stores;
we are not there.
We are the presence at every street corner and sidewalk,
the witness to the homeless and the forlorn,
and the silenced voice in every court.

Do not look for us in your clubs;
we are not there.
We are the music and the bodies moving in rhythm.
We are the pulse of the urban underground, underneath
your radar screen and harmonious in our discord.
We are male and female, and we are every
color, every race and every nationality.

Do not look for us in your programs;
we are not there.
We live and die in the boundary places, the cracks
and crevasses that your technology can never plug.
We are the gang members caught in a cycle of vengeance and rage,
and we are the drug users and dealers consumed by a
fire within that cannot express itself in any other way.
We are the dark face of a culture that has turned its back on us.

Do not look for us;
we are everywhere revealed.
We are the skateboarders that streak by, marking rail and step as we go.
We are the angry tagging and the street art that tantalizes the eye.
We are the strange chaotic attractor that lives in the heart of chaos
and the hidden wholeness at the center of your cities.
We at the core of every creative act.

We are Youth on Fire.

Special thanks to Rudy Gonzales for creating the heart of chaos logo. Visit his website for more design solutions. (http://www.gonzalezmoreno.com/)

© Copyright 2011 Catalyst for Youth, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. All rights reserved.