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Aya Ghanameh
Aya Ghanameh (she/her) is a Palestinian author-illustrator and designer from Amman, Jordan, currently based in New York City. Her work moves away from state-centric ways of thinking to center the voices of ordinary people in historical and political narratives. Her debut children's picture book, These Olive Trees (Viking Books, 2023), is inspired by the experiences of her family who cultivated her love of the earth throughout her upbringing in exile.
In a sentence, how would you describe your work?
Nostalgic, narrative, and imaginative.
Do you have any favorite themes you enjoy working with?
I work a lot with oral histories and testimonies, so trying to document and amplify different voices. Themes I usually explore are familial, political, and cultural.
What mediums do you like to work in?
Pen, pencil, and digital!
Do you have a dream project you'd like to work on someday?
I've always wanted to work on a graphic novel! So maybe that one day.
What drew you to the imagery of the kite?
I was thinking about a writer and poet I admired for many years who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in December, Dr. Refaat Al-Areer. In one of his last poems, "If I Must Die," he describes selling his belongings so that a child may build a kite. Kites are usually used as symbols of freedom, hope and resilience, and I wanted to capture that. It felt fitting considering Awesome Sock's mission and commitment to a better world.
Can you talk a little about your design process? Where do you draw your inspiration from, and how do you work shop your design from draft to final?
I draw inspiration from what I know and what I learn. I'm always drawn to stories I feel like are sidelined or marginalized in the mainstream, and thoughts or feelings I have on something that I want to make known. I usually start with very rough sketches figuring out composition on paper, then transfer that over to Procreate, clean that sketch up, and go to color from there.
Do you have a favorite feature of the sock design?
Definitely the kite! It's the focal point in an otherwise simple scene.
Ankle or crew socks for preference?
Ankle! I wear a lot of low top sneakers. I do love a designed pair of crew socks though in the wintertime when I'm wearing boots or my Docs and you can just get a tiny glimpse of it. They're also harder to lose in laundry . . .