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For this assignment, I focused on the idea that one of Allah’s names is ‘Light’.  As an art student in high school, I was always drawn to contrasting warm and cool colors which I think is why I find the idea of Allah as a source of light so appealing.  With the warm colors coming from within his name, I tried to express the power he gives over the art of calligraphy.  In Islamic Art and Spirituality, Nasr discusses how  “quaranic calligraphy is also related to illumination” (29).  I find this description particularly apt for the perspective I took in this assignment.  Both is my calligraphy supposed to illuminating in the literal and figurative sense.  I used highlighter in an attempt to really demonstrate that the light is shining through the paper and Allah’s name.  I also think that it is illuminating in the figurative sense because it demonstrates one of the key aspects of Allah, that he is the “Light of the Heaven and the Earth.”

The second element I attempted to incorporate into my calligraphy was the geometric component of Islamic Art.  “Islamic patterns also often combine calligraphy with both stylized plant forms or arabesques and geometric patterns.” Through my piece, I tried to emphasize the geometric patterns in Islamic art.  The white is meant to represent life without Allah, blank and not fulfilling.  The background which is blue and thus cool colors but just as intricately patterned is meant to  represent life without Allah but with another god, emphasizing the acceptance that Islam has for other religions

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