99 Most Beautiful Names

I went to a fantastic art presentation at my library last week and it has been on my mind ever since--so now I get to get it on your minds as well.

The presentation/display is called 99 names and stems from the artist's, Andrew Kosorok, own interest in the Islamic faith after 9/11. What he found out about the religion was so different from what the television pundits were broadcasting (for example, he talked about attending a sermon by a California Imam who spent the first half of his sermon teaching about the importance of the family unit, that families need to eat dinner together, and that no man can get to heaven without his wife, and then the second half proving the divinity of the US Constitution through the Qur'an) that he felt he needed/wanted to do something to express what he has learned. What he has created are a series of glass sculptures (there will be 99 in total--hopefully by 2012) representing each of the 99 names of God that Muslims are supposed to learn and emulate (a few examples of the names are "The Judge," "The Gentle," "The Merciful") that are gorgeous and inspiring:

I simply love the simplicity and humility in which this author is working to learn about others and pass on that learning in the hope of creating a more understanding and better world. It is an example, I think, that we can all learn from and follow. Nine of these sculptures are on display at my local library until the end of the year and are really worth a short visit if you are in the area.

You can read a few of the many articles being written on this project here, here, and here (I found the first one to be very interesting and worth a read).