Skokie Artist's Mosaic "Hate Has No Home Here" Finishes Skokie Library Residency

SKOKIE, IL — After a month on the wall at the Skokie Public Library, Skokie artist Zeeshan Farooq's community mural "Hate Has No Home Here" is no longer on display.

The piece was a labor of love from Farooq, who is internationally known for his intricate laser-cut precision woodwork, and members of the Skokie community. Farooq designed the theme for the mural by repurposing leftover cut-outs from previous projects and had members of the community design and paint them.

The individual pieces were then brought together to form the mural.

"This one is special because of how much thought went into it. It's a combination of not just my effort, but the effort of several individuals from the community, so it has a special place in my heart," Farooq said.

Some tiles feature meaningful messages from the community, such as references to family traditions and religions, but some also serve as a snapshot of current interests in society.

For example, children drew their favorite cartoons, and a "six seven" reference also snuck its way onto the piece. Farooq said he loved to talk with the children, recalling a sweet moment watching a child write "I love my mom" on their tile.

"When they're drawing, I would just pop in and ask, 'Okay, walk me through it,'" Farooq said.

Farooq said he wanted to encourage others to work to understand others in different communities more. The message he wanted to get through to people is that people are only 1 percent different and 99 percent the same.

"You may follow a different religion, I may follow a different religion, but we love pizza, we love football, we love 1,000 other things, we love art, we love writing, so why not talk about things that we love instead?" Farooq said.

Farooq was part of the Skokie Public Library's Maker in Residence Program, which invites artists to share their artistic expertise with the community. During a four-week period, the artist is available in the library's studio to interact with people while they work on their piece.

Though the piece came down on Friday, it won't remain down for long, Farooq said. He plans to open his own gallery just down the street from the library next month in Skokie, where he can feature more of his work.