Karen traveled great distances from the sunny warmth of home in Los Angeles, to be in Providence, Rhode Island, where she currently is a senior majoring in Textiles at the Rhode Island School of Design. She is not unfamiliar to the Providence non-profit circuit: she has previously made cardboard rockets and marshmallow domes with kids from the William D’Abate Elementary school in Olneyville (with English for Action), drew posters and manned the doors for AS220, and even helped spread awareness at a Buddhist temple about Mashapaug Pond for the Urban Pond Procession.

Karen’s passion for community involvement and helping others see their artistic potential has ultimately led her to New Urban Arts where she’s been a Studio Assistant and Painting Mentor, but is now thrilled to be returning as a Fiber Arts Mentor. For her senior thesis, she will be exploring ideas of community arts and gentrification through the vast array of textile media. During this past summer, she had a great opportunity to intern at Theory, a high end ready-to-wear fashion house in the heart of New York City.

When she’s not tied up in studio work/interning, she’s either traveling the world (wrangling koalas in Western Australia, weaving with a master weaver in a little Mexican village, or just circumambulating temples in India), obsessing over jellyfishes (her favorite animal next to the sea cucumber), or dreaming about her beloved California home (to which she will someday return).