Karen Jaimes is a Latina artist who was raised by her Salvadoran mother in downtown Yonkers, NY, which was an impoverished concrete jungle in the 80s and 90s. Many of her peers were first generation students whose parents immigrated to the city due to instability in their homeland. As the daughter of a Civil War refugee, Karen navigated between two cultures and languages in a multicultural city. The non-profit art programs at nearby museums, a loving community of matriarchs, and the well-rounded curriculum of Manhattanville College led her to value arts education, social justice, and community outreach. KJ is an artist-activist-educator who sculpts clay to address sociopolitical issues and question the systems in place. The transhistorical and transcultural nature of clay makes it the perfect material for metaphor.