World Wheel Center

I am a sculptor, painter, musician, performance artist, multimedia artist, poet, author, and teacher. Early in life, I spent ten years as a monastic member of the Vedanta Society convent in Santa Barbara. Later, I received my Masters of Fine Arts from Goddard College in Vermont and have lived as a working artist since. Over one thousand of my artworks are in museums, public places, and private collections, and I am a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Science. In 1986, in response to a dream, I set forth on the first World Wheel Project: Global Peace Through the Arts, a spiritual and artistic pilgrimage. For the next eight years I circled the globe, carving monumental stone sculptures and creating community-based performances in twelve countries throughout the world. In 1999 I started a second World Wheel Project, which, once again, will circle the globe, this time creating Wisdom Centers in indigenous communities to preserve and develop native knowledge and cross-cultural understanding critical to the healing and survival of our planet. To date, two such Centers have been established - one among the Shuar people in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and one among the Otavaleñan people in the Ecuadorian Andes. The Second World Wheel is dedicated to children of our planet. An account of the first World Wheel pilgrimage and the events in my life that led up to it are to be found in the recently published book “World Wheel: One Woman’s Quest for Peace”. I have also published two books presenting my poetry and artworks – “Of Earth & Fire” and “Liberty Enlightening the World”. With my good friend Edie HartshorneI I have produced two music albums and a video documentary “World Wheel: One Woman’s Quest for Peace”. More information about my work as well as my books and CDs/DVDs can be found on my web site: www.vijali.net.