This is my design for a rug I'm making in my Collaborative Projects class with a student named Mehrya, whose family came here from Afghanistan. The eye shapes are a natural geometric intersection of the style of design I pulled from actual afghan rug art, but are meant to represent the fear of her family as they struggled through the explosions and carnage and war which compelled their dramatic escape. The bone shapes also speak to the fatal path of their journey. Although Mehrya was not born yet, her family's struggle to care for siblings and eventually bring her into the world is firmly planted in her self-identity. However, Mehrya herself is a sunny and bright person, a beacon I can only imagine to her family - someone who makes them happy and strong in her warmth. I have represented her in the center of the rug with the radiating beams, and a smaller version of the eye pattern, which is round and more human and insists on looking not to the fearful events of the past but to the human possibilities of the future.
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