This Artist Uses Black Ink & Gold Details to Highlight Symbolic Forms │ Maisa Mreiwed

At Arts to Hearts Project, our Women Artists on the Rise Edition 4 is full of women who see the world in a hundred different ways. Some paint what is right in front of them. But every so often, an artist builds an entire world of her own, one you have to slow down and read rather than simply look at. That is what drew us to Maisa Mreiwed.

Maisa is a Syrian-Canadian artist, designer, researcher, and educator based in Canada, and her path to art ran through many doors. She studied fashion design, religious studies, and art education, and all of it feeds the work. From design she brings structure and precision.

From her studies of history, culture, and belief she brings a deep well of stories and symbols. Every piece she makes begins with research, and grows slowly from there.

She draws mostly with a quill and ink, which is a wonderfully old, patient way to work in a world that moves this fast. There is nothing quick about it. Each line is laid down by hand, stroke after tiny stroke, until an intricate world builds up on the page.

She says she tries to make the ink sing and the quill dance, and you can feel that care in every detail. For Maisa, choosing this traditional technique is a way of honouring craftsmanship itself.

Her drawings are mostly deep black, and then, here and there, she adds a touch of gold, silver, or copper, small moments of light that lift the most important symbols and stand for hope, transformation, and renewal.

Look closely and you find humans, birds, animals, and sea creatures all sharing the same space, woven together with patterns and symbols. She places them side by side on purpose, as a quiet reminder that every living thing is connected and shares the same world.

That idea really sits at the heart of everything she makes. Her drawings are stories about living together, about survival, and about how closely tied we are to the natural world. A lot of them are quietly asking us to look after the oceans, the skies, and the land we all share.

She even picks her materials with that in mind, using eco-friendly inks and paper that is handmade or recycled. But she never spells it all out for you. Every symbol is left a little open, almost like an invitation to bring your own memories and find your own story inside the work.

And people have been finding their way to that work for a while now. Her art has been shown across Canada and around the world, in galleries, at art fairs, on public walls, and even at academic conferences.

She has taken part in a residency abroad, been recognised for work inspired by climate action, and was recently named among the top hundred artists in a national competition. Through all of it, she has kept up her research into Syrian textiles and traditional costumes, and the way they hold memory, identity, and history.

Now let’s hear from Maisa about her journey to art, the quill she still draws with, and the connection between all living things.

Q1. Can you share a little about your background and how your journey as an artist began?

I am a Syrian-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher. My practice grew from a passion for storytelling, history, and symbols, which continues to shape every artwork I create.

Q2. How have architecture, design, and fine art shaped the way you build an artwork?

They have taught me to think about both structure and meaning. Every artwork begins with research and evolves through layers of ink and acrylic, allowing the story to unfold naturally.

Q3. What keeps you connected to working with quill and ink?

Using a quill is my way of preserving a traditional drawing technique.

It reflects my respect for craftsmanship and complements the timeless stories and symbols that appear throughout my work.

Q4. What interests you about bringing animals, birds, marine life, and human figures together?

They remind us that all living beings are connected and share the same world. Together, they help tell stories about coexistence, resilience, and hope.

Q5. What role do gold, silver, and copper play in your predominantly black-ink works?

They emphasize important symbols and create moments of light that represent hope, transformation, and renewal.

Q6. How do you know when an idea has enough depth to become a finished artwork?

When the story continues to resonate through research, reflection, and drawing, I know it has enough depth to become a finished work.

Q7. How do personal memories and imagination come together in your work?

My experiences provide the starting point, while imagination allows the stories to become universal and open to different interpretations.

Q8. What perspective do you hope your work brings to conversations about the environment?

I hope my work reminds people that humans and nature are deeply interconnected, and that protecting one means protecting the other.

Q9. Have viewers from different cultures ever interpreted your symbols in unexpected ways?

Yes. I enjoy seeing viewers discover meanings that reflect their own experiences, which adds new layers to the work.

Q10. What ideas have remained constant as your visual language has evolved?

Storytelling, symbolism, cultural memory, and our relationship with nature have remained at the heart of my practice.

Q11. What do you hope viewers take away from your work?

I hope they leave with a sense of curiosity and connection, knowing that every symbol is an invitation to reflect, imagine, and discover their own story within the work.

As our conversation with Maisa came to an end, we found ourselves thinking about how connected everything really is. About how easy it is to forget that we share this world with countless other living things, and how much changes when we remember.

That reminder is really what her work is for. In her drawings, humans and birds and animals and creatures of the sea all live in the same frame, tangled together in one intricate, shared world. Nothing stands alone. It is a beautiful, quiet argument for coexistence, for survival, and for taking care of the oceans and skies and lands that hold all of us.

And there is something in the way she makes it that matters just as much. In an age of instant, throwaway images, she sits with a quill and builds these worlds by hand, one patient stroke at a time. The care is part of the message. It says some things are worth slowing down for.

We think a lot of artists need to hear what her practice quietly teaches. That depth takes time. Maisa does not rush a piece into being. She lets an idea live through research and reflection and drawing, and only when it keeps resonating does it become a finished work. In a world that rewards fast and loud, she is proof that patience, curiosity, and real meaning still matter, and that the work is stronger for them.

For art lovers and collectors, Maisa’s work brings something rare into a room. Intricate, hand-drawn worlds lit with touches of gold, full of symbols and stories that reveal a little more every time you look. Two people can stand in front of the same piece and find completely different meanings in it, because she leaves that door open on purpose. To live with one of her drawings is to keep a whole world on your wall, and a gentle daily reminder that we are all, always, connected.

Follow Maisa Mreiwed through the links below and see her work for yourself.

Our Big Book of Mixed Media Artists 2026 is now open for submissions, and we believe the magic lives in the mix. In what happens when different materials meet, collide, and start speaking to each other. If you layer, pour, collage, stitch, or combine in ways nobody else would think to, and your work goes beyond a single medium, we want to see it. The materials do not matter. Geography does not matter. Career stage does not matter. What matters is that something real is happening between the layers. Every artist we feature began by submitting. This could be your edition.