Multimedia Artist & Educator. Traded the bustling lifestyle of the big apple NYC for the beautifully orchestrated chaos of village life in India, where most recently the past year she has been running her start-up organization Ascetics with Cameras. On her fifth trip to India, totaling over 40 months (and counting), while making movies with babas and mata jis, she practices yoga, meditation and Sanatan Dharma (Hindu philosophy) alongside various Juna Akhara sanyasi.When not traveling with Juna Akhara, she spends her time teaching and learning alongside some of the most amazingly mindful and creative children in the world, bouncing around between Space for Nurturing Creativity and Ashram Paryavaran Vidyalaya.
Though while in NYC, Nicole had spent most of her time as a founding member of the Brooklyn based, non-profit multicultural arts collective, Projectile Arts. Since its inception, Nicole contributed to not only the development of the organization and collaborating artist network, but also the production of various Projectile Arts endeavors, including web/graphic design projects, international documentary films, and large scale multimedia/performance events.
Nicole has a BA in Studio Art (photography concentration) and Philosophy from Lake Forest College; has completed graduate level coursework in educational multimedia development at Harvard University and photography at International Center for Photography. And in over 40 months (and counting) in 5 trips to India, Nicole has been studying yoga, meditation and Hindu philosophy alongside various Juna Akhara ascetics.
Throughout all this she has supported herself as a freelance web designer, video editor, and multimedia teacher within various City Parks Foundation and New York City Parks & Recreation programs. With over 12 years teaching experience Nicole focuses on using media as a tool of empowerment for self-expression as well as documentation. Most recently (Dec. 2007 – Jan. 2010) she was the Computer Resource Center / RECYouth Coordinator at Hamilton Fish Recreation Center in the Lower East Side.
Over the years Nicole has been developing a strong interest in social media and internet theory, specifically in the ways we use technology to bring closer together different worlds, communities and cultures that may not be in our physical reach, ie. Culture Spreading and Preservation through multimedia technology.
More recently she has been exploring the human brain, about what it means to be truly human, about ways to evolve our consciousness, about alternative ways of raising and educating children, about ways to bring about social transformation in the world.