lasercut wood with acrylic, image transfer, 28x14x.5", 2023

As a teacher and a lifelong learner, my mother, Azra Gill, loves connecting people with threads of information. Though she began as a history lecturer, she immersed herself in studying Arabic and Quran as her motherhood duties relaxed. My mother has many daughters, though only three by birth. Many women call her Auntie and credit her with opening their minds through both her teaching and example. I saw this firsthand for an extended time a few years ago when I went to care for her after an accident. Her body may have been frail, but her intelligence and spiritual strength were indomitable. The Islamic geometric patterns remove the individual details, leaving the structure, symbolizing Azra’s journey and faith.