Only 22 years old, and currently a 5th year medical student at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Mai Abu El Naga is also an illustrator, muralist, and a painter. Additionally, she juggles all of that with creating more wearable art pieces for Scarfistry that is full of hand painted scarves and illustrated t-shirts. Her current and ongoing project is the illustration of Egyptian and Arabic Idioms, which were many of the things that we spoke to Mai about.

How did your passion for illustrations begin?

I first started illustrating a long time ago. Ever since I was a child, I just discovered how I’m mostly able to express myself through drawings or illustrations. Once I started taking this subject a little bit more seriously, I started delving more into the art world and I taught myself most of the techniques that I use. I started doing oil paintings, acrylics, exploring in general different media. Then digital art, which came in recently, around two years ago because I felt with the developing world and everything being fast paced, people want what speaks to them in a more digital manner. It’s just the way that the lines are neater, it’s not to say that digital art is necessarily better than fine art or the other way around, it’s that they’re two very different mediums, and to me this is something that I wanted to explore.

What are you inspired by the most?

I’d say that I’m mostly inspired by visuals. If I’m just walking on the street and I randomly see a scene that I think strikes me in some way I’d probably photograph it and then it would inspire some kind of idea in my mind. I’m also quite inspired by cultural practices; Egypt being a country that is just full of culture inspires me in so many ways. When it comes to food, for example, when it comes to our general cultural and religious practices, this is mostly where I draw my inspiration from.

Tell us about the series of idioms you’ve been working on. How did it all start?

This idea started with the global initiative called ‘Inktober’. It’s basically where artists from all around the world try to create an illustration every day of the month of October, and every year I join it with a different theme. But this year, I really wanted to create a theme that would reach Egyptians, since my target audience is mostly Egyptian. So, I overheard a conversation once between two people at a cafe and one of them was telling the other
“اشتري دماغك” which basically translates into “Buy your head,” and it just hit me…how so many of our expressions and our words have a very different literal meaning from the figurative one. How we tend to use all these words all the time. I felt like it really represents how, even though they are odd, but somehow it actually represents how smart we are in portraying our feelings through these very odd idioms. For example, if you say “عاصر على نفسي لمونة” which basically translates into “I’ll squeeze a lemon on myself,” this just portrays the idea of feeling bitter and having to tolerate something that you don’t really want to.

How do you define culture within your art?

For instance, with the Egyptian idiom series, by collecting all the different idioms with people throughout the month, I managed to collect over 70 idioms. Then, every time when I would filter them out, I noticed how so many of them have food items included, and it hit me how we use the idea of food in a lot of our conversations. That shows how big of an impact food has.

Why did you decide to start creating wearable art with scarves and t-shirts specifically?

As far as mediums go, I’m a person who likes to explore a lot of different mediums. The idea of scarves started around three years ago. I wanted to create a brand for myself that would include both art and fashion. For someone who wanted to display artworks as a wearable item, I feel like scarves are the best way to display that. You can style them in different ways, they really make up a large part of any outfit, so I felt that scarves are just the perfect clothing item for that. I do customized scarves; People anywhere from all over the world can order a certain theme, and I will create a design based on that. For example, a favorite TV show or a favorite city, they just give me the theme and I create the design, and then they receive their customized scarf. I also release different lines every now and then.

What are the different lines you’ve released?

This year [2019] for example, I released a scarf line called “migratory species” and it was basically a collaboration with an Egyptian non-profit organization called ‘Nature Conservation Egypt’. What they do is try to help, even if in very minor ways, with nature conservation. A project that they’re currently working on is trying to ban hunting. Egypt being a place for so many migratory species that are near to being extinct and endangered, this organization tries to raise awareness on that issue. With this scarf collaboration, I wanted to feature some of Egypt’s most famous migratory species, especially ones that are very close to being extinct, and each scarf features one of these birds as the focus. When people order the scarves, they know that 50% of their order goes to the organization. They also receive a brochure with it that says something about the bird itself, why it’s important to Egypt, how you can help and donate money, etc. So this is my most recent project with the scarves. Another line with scarvestry and tee (short for T-shirts), I also create designs that are printed on shirts, and a lot of the designs again have to do with Egyptian culture.

What other mediums are you hoping to work on next, and what are the ones you’ve already worked on? 

I’ve worked with murals, I work with a company that is specialized in murals, and I’m one of the artists that work with them. Some of the past murals I’ve done include a restaurant, it’s an Egyptian restaurant called “Ahweti” and they wanted a theme of traditional Egyptian balconies. They wanted the whole wall to be covered with that. I’ve also worked at a co-working place, so I’ve done a mural there, and at a hospital, it was a voluntary work along with a group of other people. We helped recolor the fence opposite the pediatric hospital. I’ve also carried out a murals project in Naples, Italy.

I wouldn’t say that I have a specific medium that i’m interested in exploring. However, I’m interested in doing more mural work in the future, because this is something that I genuinely enjoy. I really love working on big spaces, and murals help provide me with that, and my future plans, as of right now, I’m planning to do more of the Egyptian idioms. Hopefully, there will be an exhibition at the start of January 2020 that will feature a lot of different mediums and people would come and just enjoy the art. 

Check out more of Mai’s art on her Instagram page @maielnaga.