Kate Walter Reading Her Work on March 4, 2020 photo: @Maile Studios

I live in Westbeth Artists Housing, in Greenwich Village, and had a successful reading of my novel in progress in the community room on March 4. About 50 people attended.

Everyone liked the chapter I read and told me I had to finish the book. We chatted and drank champagne. Hard to believe that wonderful evening was only two weeks ago. All events in my building are now postponed, including the flea market and a big exhibit in the gallery.

Along with my neighbors at Westbeth, we survived 9/11, watching the horror from our rooftop. We survived Hurricane Sandy, which flooded our basement. But those disasters brought us together. The virus is isolating us. We got a memo from management not to hang out in the lobby.

All of this is depressing. I feel like I need an extra therapy session. But the virus has helped me to put things in perspective…

Read the complete article published online at AARP Magazine HERE

Karin Batten // "New Paintings" // June Kelly Gallery from Izzy Nova on Vimeo.

“My new series of work is inspired by the evocative and distinct places I find while traveling. In 2018, I went to Puerto Rico and Costa Rica to find inspiration for my new works and I help with the relief effort. While there, I visited Playa Negra, a black sand beach, formed from an earlier volcano. Inspired by the magma, I brought some back and integrated its rich mysterious color and texture into this body of work. Seeing the uniquely colored feather patterns of Costa Rican birds first hand while surrounded by fauna and butterflies left me with a feeling for intense color that I work to capture in my paintings. These authentic discoveries and moments help enrich each work with its own story and its own unique world.”

Video by Izzy Nova and Wyatt Rexach

See more work by Karin Batten HERE

June Kelly Gallery 166 Mercer Street NYC
For info regarding Gallery visits, click Here

Music by Ravel and Bach. “These flute classics speak of perseverance, stamina, and rigorous beauty. I would love to share them with you.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of7_ZkS0ROc

Originally live streamed on March 19 on YouTube.

Louna Dekker-Vargas is a flutist, chamber musician, improviser and composer. Her open, curious ears have led her into adventures with classical, jazz and experimental music. She has traveled around the U.S. and Canada as a chamber musician, soloist and teaching artist.

Louna has served as a substitute flutist for the International Contemporary Ensemble, and is a regular substitute for the Broadway musical, Wicked. She also plays with NY jazz quintet Atlantic Extraction, led by bassist Nick Dunston. Her minimalist composition Ah was commissioned for chamber orchestra by Mind on Fire in September of 2018.

Her duo, The Witches, with Ledah Finck combines classical chamber artistry with inquisitive free improvisations and their own compositions for flute, violin and voice. The duo has performed in the Evolution Contemporary Music Series, Spectrum, the High Zero stage at Baltimore’s Artscape Festival, the Red Room, Rhizome, Andrea Clearfield’s Salon Series, The Union Square Chamber Music Series (Baltimore), and at the Baltimore Art Museum. Their album project Behind the Curtain: New Music on Women was the recipient of a Johns Hopkins Research Grant.

She is also a founding member of Trio Jinx- a flute, double bass and viola trio active from 2015-2018 performing residencies at the Sikta Chamber Music Festival, El Paso Pro Musica, the Mesa Performing Arts Center, and the Iowa Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.