By Ishwaria Mohan ‘04

The statement seemed simple enough: Sharon Kugler, the chaplain, announced that we, the Interfaith Council (IFC), were going to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the Interfaith Center with a mosaic. Immediately we let out a surge of “oohs” and “aahs” for this great idea. Commissioning a professional artist to create a mosaic that represents the center is simply a great idea! This momentary period of wonder was quickly replaced with trepidation when Sharon continued to say that we, the members of the IFC, would be both the creative force behind and the actual creators of the piece.

From start to finish, the mosaic was the product of the students’ vision under the professional and technical guidance of Cinder Hypki, a community artist and a member of the Maryland Institute College of Art. Now looking at the final product several months later, I can hardly imagine that this colorful and profound embodiment of the interfaith spirit began on a blank piece of paper with a black circle in the middle. During one of the first IFC meetings of this spring semester, the tables were strewn with art supplies in addition to the usual candies. The instructions were straightforward: use anything you see in front of you and draw what the Interfaith Center means to you. This task fell under the “easier said than done” category. In all the years I have spent in the Interfaith Center and as part of the Council, I never took the time to quantify what the place had meant to me. I had always come to IFC meetings on Tuesday evenings; I had always participated in the Open Your Eyes dinner series to hear students from two faiths discuss a specified topic; however it was this process of creating the mosaic that gave me the outlet to quantify why I had wanted to be a part of the Interfaith Center and to acknowledge its impact on my college years and beyond.

Faced with a tabletop covered with colors pens, pencils, and oil pastels, I was glaringly reminded that the only colored pen I had picked up during my Hopkins years was a highlighter. Though I had owned highlighters in 6 different colors, they had neither represented nor even hinted at any creative capabilities within me. Nonetheless Sharon, Kathy Schnurr, the assistant chaplain, and Cinder assured the audience that there would be no judgment of our creative output. Surrounded by writing implements that left permanent marks, I reached for the nearest pencil to sketch out a few ideas. And so the process began… Soon the colored pastels and pens replaced the pencil, breathing some life into the light pencil marks that cover the once blank paper. Four and a half hours later, I realized what a mistake I had made by wearing a white shirt. With my sleeves covered in a host of colored oil pastels, I took a step back and could only smile at the final product. That image said everything I couldn’t say about the importance of the Interfaith Center and the Interfaith Council. From a central box of a white void came a cascade of thoughts and ideas represented by prismatic colors that rushed outward in a freedom of expression piercing through black dark background that was devoid of such expression. The free flow of ideas and discussion and the mutual respect represent the community housed in the Interfaith Center. Š

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