Description:

Maha Gabriela Mogab Campos is a textile and visual artist with a special focus on sustainable practices. Her preferred mediums include oil and chalk pastels, charcoal, yarn, fabrics, paper, and natural elements. She always strives to reuse or repurpose materials before purchasing new ones. If there’s a way for her to make something instead of buying it, she will choose that route. Born in Montreal to immigrant parents, Maha spent most of her childhood between Lebanon and Costa Rica. This upbringing allowed her to appreciate the impermanence of things and draw connections between the diverse worlds she’s experienced. The constants in her life are her connections to people, food, nature, and herself. Creating art inspired by the natural world helps Maha continuously reevaluate and strengthen her connection to it while celebrating its richness and depth. Observation plays a critical role in her practice; she’s less concerned with reproducing things as they appear and more focused on how they appear to her. Her process is slow and deliberate, often marked by extended periods of rest. She places more value on her thought processes and personal growth—whether through the evolution of her skills or the development of her guiding philosophies—than on sheer productivity.

The mushroom and butterfly are both made entirely from foraged and repurposed materials. For the mushroom, Maha created a dome-like structure from cardboard boxes and covered it with batting and polyester fiber fill salvaged from old pillows and stuffed animals that her dog had torn apart. She then covered the structure with a beautiful piece of fabric that was gifted to her from someone’s stash. To create the gills, she brewed a strong tea to dye Hanji paper, which was then used in the final piece. Though it may not appear so, the mushroom cap is actually very heavy. For the butterfly wings, Maha used old white sheets that she no longer needed, which she dyed with tea. The intricate details were cut from fabric samples she found at CUCCR. She foraged two long branches to serve as a structure from which the wings hang. These branches allow the wearer to flap the wings. The wings are designed to be worn like a backpack, with a base made from a recyclable grocery bag and elastic straps to secure the piece to the wearer’s body.