Summer Solstice – Plants Who Speak: Botanical Monoprints with Jimena Vega

Summer Solstice – Plants Who Speak: Botanical Monoprints with Jimena Vega June 21 5 – 7:30pm Free with RSVP here Plants Who Speak: Botanical Monoprint is an exploration of creativity and our relationship with nature. This workshop will help us explore our surroundings, awaken our curiosity, and create relationships with the plant beings that live besides us. The purpose of this workshop is to find inspiration and materials for artmaking in and with Nature. “In Nature,” by exploring our own contexts: our backyards, gardens, parks, and even our sidewalks. “With Nature” by collaborating with Plants as living, conscious allies whom we must listen to and respect. Throughout the workshop, we will explore Socrates Sculpture Park, gather leaves, and learn how to make botanical monotypes. We will wrap up by creating collages with the prints. BIO Jimena Vega was born and raised in Ambato, a community in the Andean mountains of Ecuador. After experiencing a childhood full of traditions interwoven with nature, she immigrated to urban New Jersey as a teenager to reunite with her family. In spite of the initial challenges and bewildering metropolitan cultural shock, Jimena persevered and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2012. Her art career began after her graduation. Drawing inspiration from her nature-filled childhood, her migration journey, and the cultural and artistic resilience of immigrant communities in the United States, Jimena began to explore diverse mediums such as illustration, sculpture, and art-making with organic materials. She also began participating in and facilitating women’s circles centered on plants, healing, oral history, and therapeutic art-making. In 2022, she left her career of ten years in pursuit of a career in art and teaching. Since then, her art and her workshops have been featured in diverse places, such as Guttenberg Arts, the Queens Museum, Rabbit Hole Farms in Newark, Passaic County Arts Center, St. Peter’s University, and Raíces Cultural Center. Recently, Jimena completed the NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, and currently, she is doing a residency at Wild Flower Sculpture Park at South Orange, New Jersey.