Aya is a Lebanese designer, printmaker, cinephile, and coffee junkie currently based in Metro Detroit. She graduated from the American University of Beirut with a BFA in Graphic Design. After moving to the US, she worked at the Arab American National Museum for nearly 7 years before leaving recently to pursue a freelance career. She has a deep interest in art and craft traditions and their preservation. She is interested in melding the old with the new, community-based knowledge-sharing, and the idea that art is for everyone. She is a co-founder of Maamoul Press, a multi-disciplinary small press and collective that aims for the creation, curation and dissemination of art by marginalized creators at the intersection of comics, printmaking and book arts, which we’ll dive into a bit more during our conversation.
When not drowning in design deadlines, keeping up with the Maamoul Press festival schedule, and having movie marathons, she’s getting acquainted with her new old 100+ year old platen press and learning letterpress, in hopes of one day retreating from the workforce and becoming a printmaking hermit.
