Jimena Vega is an Andean-Ecuadorian visual artist based in New Jersey. Her work explores Andean identity, specifically the nature-rooted heritage passed down to her by her mother, grandmother, and community. Her surrealist illustrations and ceramic and paper-mache sculptures portray Andean healing practices and relationships between humans, the land, animals, and plants that transcend hierarchy. The characters in her pieces – animals as symbols of feminine spiritual forces and plants as medicinal allies of humans – create narratives that reconstruct her personal journey as an immigrant. Through ink drawings and watercolor illustrations, she invites the public to remember our relationship with Mother Earth and what we can learn from her web of interdependent relationships. In her latest projects, she explores botanical printmaking as a tool not only to recognize nature in the highly urban environment where she lives, but also to create a community space for conversation.