Welcome to Karen’s New York Love Affair
This website showcases creative offerings by the artist, model, and writer Karen Rempel. The opinions on this website are my own. Karen Rempel
About Karen
Karen Rempel has had solo exhibitions in New York and Vancouver, and her work has been included in many group exhibitions at the National Arts Club and Salmagundi Club in New York.
She is the author of Complete Beading for Beginners and has published her words and pictures in an assortment of print and web media.
Karen is a Manhattan model and has a monthly column called Karen’s Quirky New York, which illuminates quirky people, places, and style for her quirky friends near and far.
My Inspiration
Manhattan’s neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and neighboring Chelsea are rich wells of inspiration, with endless history to discover and something new always popping up. Occasionally I venture farther afield, like my photojournalist story about voyaging on the Queen Mary 2, and an upcoming guide book on British Columbia destinations for New Yorkers.
A Bit of History
This website and blog has morphed and changed since 2008 when I started writing about my adventures living in the wilderness of British Columbia. From Monkey Valley Retreat Centre, to BC Wilderness Visions, to Wild Visions, to Karen’s New York Love Affair, this website still reflects the vision of a wild, spirited woman from BC!
Since I mostly write about New York and my love affair with this city, nowadays this site is called “Karen’s New York Love Affair.” This connects to my Another New York Love Affair video art project on YouTube. You might be sensing a theme here!
This website is a place where I share my photography and writing. Karen’s words and pictures, you could say. And while I am inspired by many sources, both urban and wild, it is the inner wildness in us all that interests me the most.
Karen’s Past Incarnations
Retreat centre I used to own a place in the wilderness where I held retreats, and I originally created this site as a place for people to learn about practices that help us reconnect with nature, both outer and inner. In the past, I offered programs to support this process of reconnection, focusing on earth-based spiritual practices such as vision fast retreats, medicine walks, and workshops on yoga and nature.
Program guide I was a vision fast guide trained by the School of Lost Borders. I taught the medicine walk and the nature psychology of the four directions, and have been a student of the Diamond Approach for many years. I was a registered yoga teacher and a member of the Wilderness Guides Council. I guided and taught some of the programs offered by BC Wilderness Visions, sometimes with the help of friends.
Personal blog I have really loved writing the entries on this blog since 2008! I hope that my readers have had as much enjoyment as I have had. Lots of the early blog entries were about my adventures on the land in and around Monkey Valley. But after a while the scope broadened to include all the kinds of things I learned about while I got my master’s in ecopsychology from Naropa University. This blog is a place for me to showcase my writing and photography.
Illustrated Topics on this website
My artwork explores these subjects through digital art, photography, video, and stories:
- New York people, places, and style
- Greenwich Village history
- Vision fasts
- Medicine wheels and walks
- Nature psychology of the four directions
- Running and yoga
Other ways to find information on this site
You can use the Search box in the left sidebar to search for the topic that interests you.