harvey nichol
Art as fulfillment: How art helped Harvey Nichols turn his overcome his struggles and turn them into stories
Written by: Yasmin Jaswal
Giving up has never been something Harvey Nichol, a Calgary-based, Filipino-born artist, has considered an option—although there have been many situations in his life where he could have done so.
In his 25 years, Nichol has experienced harrowing challenges, from poverty, the loss of a parent and homelessness, to the struggles of leaving all he knows to come to a completely new country.
While there have been many hurdles in his life, he’s managed to find a way to get over every single one.
Now, he tells the story of his struggles—and his successes—through his art. And much like his art, he is constantly evolving.
Tondo: where it
all started
Nichol spent the first 10 years of his childhood being raised by his mother in Tondo, a district in the Philippine capital city of Manila. While the city is known as “the Pearl of the Orient”. Tondo has a different reputation. The district is considered to be one of the worst slums in the country. According to Nichol, it’s underdeveloped, overpopulated and has a high crime rate.
“My eyes were opened at such a young age to see all of those struggles,” he says. “My mom's boyfriend couldn't even find a job because he was from Tondo. Because if you're from Tondo, you're automatically seen as a criminal or someone who can't be trusted.”
Despite the statistics and hurdles that come with living in Tondo, Nichols recalls the majority of his time in the district fondly, especially when it comes to the community, which he says was full of people who looked after one another.
While he had a large community to help care for him in Tondo, he says there was mainly one person who took care of him: his mom.
By the time he was born, his parents had already separated and his father had left the country for work. Neither his father’s or his mom’s parents lived in Tondo, which meant his mom raised him on her own.
“I'm really grateful that I was able to have such a strong, independent woman to guide me, especially at that young age,” Nichol says. “That was probably one of the biggest bright sides of being able to live with her.”
When he was just 10 years old, Nichol’s mom contracted strep throat. Because of limited access to healthcare, the infection was left untreated and led to more serious complications, including rheumatic heart disease. Nichol’s mom ended up suffering a stroke and was taken to hospital overnight.
“That was the last time I saw my mom.”
“I'm really grateful that I was able to have such a strong, independent woman to guide me, especially at that young age.”
A life-altering move
After his mom passed, Nichol was left alone. His family members, none of whom lived in Tondo, made the decision that he would move an hour north to Bulacan to live with his father’s parents.
This would be one of many pivotal decisions in Nichol’s life.
“At that time and at that age, there were not only hormones, but going through all of these traumatic experiences in a matter of a year. It was kind of intense. That was definitely one of the moments in my life that built who I am today.”
Despite not knowing his grandparents very well, Nichol says he was well taken care of while living with them.
“My grandmother was the one who took charge of me and essentially became my second mother. She was a great woman. She took care of me and all my needs while my father was away.”
Nichol didn’t expect to be in Bulacan for long. He was set to move to Canada, where his father was living with his own family. Because of this, Nichol had stopped attending school.
However, as months, and then years, passed and he remained in Bulacan, he began to question his future.
“As a kid, I lost hope because I had to stop school. And for three years, I didn't go to school. I felt like my life wasn't going to go anywhere if I stopped school and all of my classmates moved on while I was still waiting to go to Canada.”
But just when it looked like it was time to give up, the then 13-year-old Nichol received the news he’d been waiting for: it was finally time for him to head to Canada.
“ Life was kind of intense. That was one of the moments in my life that built who I am today. ”
A rocky start in a new country
The transition to his new life in Canada was anything but smooth.
Nichol recalls initially being excited about the prospect of moving to Canada and the chance to rebuild. But along with the excitement, there was also some apprehension about the new life chapter he was about to begin.
“As a kid, moving to a whole new country is stressful enough, but it was more stressful knowing I was going to live with my father for the first time, and with his new family,” he says. “That was really big and there were a lot of emotions that I was going through.”
One of the biggest differences Nichol felt almost immediately was the lack of community.
“That is something that I felt there was a lot of contrast with when I moved here compared to while I was living in Tondo. In Tondo, all your neighbors essentially cared for you. So that was something that was a bit of a culture shock for me when I moved here. Because in Canada, you can die and you're next door neighbor could care less.”
While Nichol was grasping the differences between his hometown and his new home in Calgary, he was also dealing with an unstable home life. Nichol lived with his father and his father’s new family—his pregnant girlfriend and the child the couple shared together. Nichol says there was a lot of “head-butting” at home.
On top of all of this, Nichol was faced with another challenge: trying to get into school.
Nichol says his father did not enroll him in school right away. By this time, he had already been out of school for more than three years, and felt he was falling behind. Eventually, Nichol recalls Social Services getting involved, and by January the following year, he finally returned to school.
By the time he was 15, the weight of everything had become very heavy, and at one point, Nichol did not feel he could carry it any longer.
"At one point, I found myself in a difficult situation where various factors eventually led me to attempt to take my own life,” says Nichol. “Thankfully, I was unsuccessful. It was then that I realized I didn't move halfway across the world to live in such a situation, and that I would rather be homeless than stay in that household. So that’s what I did.”
“In Tondo, all your neighbors essentially cared for you. So that was something that was a bit of a culture shock for me when I moved here. Because in Canada, you can die and you're next door neighbor could care less.”
A “Refreshed” perspective
After leaving home, Nichol spent the first few weeks couch surfing at friends’ houses. He soon reached a point where he decided he didn’t want to rely on others for housing, so he turned to a youth shelter.
“The youth shelter was great, but it’s also the time where I got into a lot of trouble,” says Nichol.
He adds that he and his fellow shelter residents would often spend their days in local malls and “figure out what to do.” Unfortunately, this meant they made some bad decisions that came with consequences, including an arrest.
Things weren’t looking bright for Nichol at this stage in his life. But that all started to change when he joined an after-school program called Refreshed Crew.
Refreshed uses the four elements of hip-hop—emceeing, djing, breakdancing and graffiti (more broadly, the visual arts)—as well as Indigenous culture and values, to build resilience, develop connections and teach valuable life skills. The program focuses on Indigenous and vulnerable youth in and around Calgary.
“It changed my life entirely,” he says. “I met a lot of people that I can look up to, [including] other artists.”
Nichol credits the program for two main things: allowing him to really focus on his art to turn it into something that could help him in multiple ways and helping him create his own community.
“I've always drawn throughout my childhood, but during the time in the shelter was when I started doing a lot of graffiti tagging. And then when I went to this program, that's when I started to hone in on that skill and I learned that it could be something that can turn a negative into a positive.”
“[Refreshed is] where I met most of my artist friends,” he adds. “They were my mentors once and I think as I grew older they’ve become friends. [Refreshed] was a positive thing that happened to me. I feel like if it wasn't for that community, I would probably still be homeless and doing reckless stuff.”
“ I've always drawn throughout my childhood, but during the time in the shelter was when I started doing a lot of graffiti tagging. And then when I went to this program, that's when I started to hone in on that skill and I learned that it could be something that can turn a negative into a positive. ”
Understanding his own identity
Nichol holds many identities. He is an artist; a permanent resident of Canada; a Filipino. When it comes to describing his identity in his own words, it’s still a work in progress.
He starts off by saying, “I’m a first-generation immigrant visual artist,” before changing that to “a first-generation Filipino-Canadian artist.”
The hesitation and locking down one identity, even if multi-faceted, comes down to history and Nichol’s understanding of his own.
“I feel like Filipino is such a new identity. Filipino and the Philippines are named after a white guy: King Phillip II, who's never set foot in the Philippines,” Nichol explains. “So that identity itself is still contentious, in my opinion. And as I try to learn more about my history, I identify more as of Tagalog descent, which is a specific ethnic group in the Philippines. So I would say I'm a Tagalog Canadian Filipino. I don't know.”
And it’s not just the Filipino part of his identity he’s still trying to fully understand. He’s working on the Canadian part as well.
“I'm not a citizen in this country yet. If you're not a citizen of the country, are you of that land? I've lived here long enough that I'm familiar with Canadian culture. However, I'm still in the mix on whether I'm Canadian yet,” he says.
To truly understand his own identity, he’ll need time.
“I will get there eventually. But as I said, right now I'm dissecting the past 10 years of my life, which is between the Philippines and arriving here. I'm sure that once I've gotten that all out of my system, I can go and figure out my identity.”
The concept of community
Along with multiple identities, Nichol also has multiple communities in both Calgary and Tondo. The common theme amongst them is that they are made up of like-minded individuals who Nichol belongs and can build with.
“Where you find your community is where you belong, right? If it wasn't for the community that I've built in this city, I wouldn't stay here. That's how powerful communities are. They make you feel like you belong and you have people you can talk to and create and play with,” he says. "I think a community is a powerful way of showing solidarity with each other.”
Fulfillment empowered through art
Nichol has turned his art into his current career. But it’s much more than just a means to make money. It is also a tool he is using to help him heal by sharing his story, identity and culture.
“My art is kind of me trying to dissect what I went through for the past 10 years. Turn some wounds into wisdom, essentially,” he says. “A lot of people have experienced immigration. A lot of people have experienced homelessness. A lot of people have experienced losing their parents. And everyone's experience is valid. But I think that my own version of [all of] it is something that myself and other people can learn something from.”
“All of the things I do have a bit of my culture in them, and I'm very proud of that. It's my way of sharing what I know about the culture to the broader audience and world.”
His identity and culture are very prominent in his work. But nothing is more prominent in his art than his mom.
Nichol’s very first exhibition, called “11 Years Later”, was dedicated to his mom. Every piece he created for it was an homage to her and her life. Even after that exhibition, he continues to put a bit of his mom into everything he creates.
“She's always been someone who, despite all of our struggles, was able to motivate me before she passed away. So a lot of her lives on in my art. It may not be a portrait of her, but her story lives on through it.”
“All of the things I do have a bit of my culture in them, and I'm very proud of that. It's my way of sharing what I know about the culture to the broader audience and world.”
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