Artist Nathalie Halbout of Middletown Again Raising Funds for Wounded Veterans in Ukraine
By Eileen Moon
RED BANK – Although the Art Alliance on Monmouth Street is just a few miles from Nathalie Halbout’s home, just across the bridge in Middletown, the journey Halbout has taken there began thousands of miles away.
Halbout is one of three artists of Ukrainian heritage whose work is featured in the Alliance’s annual invitational exhibit, which this year celebrates the art of Ukraine and the resilience of a nation long known for its cultural heritage.
“The Nightingale Sings: Visual Voices of Ukraine,” featuring the work of Halbout, Melanka Coppola and Elena Samarsky, will be on exhibit at the Art Alliance of Monmouth County through Feb. 3.
For Halbout, the exhibit is an opportunity to celebrate that cultural heritage in a time when the darkness of war clouds the landscape. Her porcelain sculptures and felt creations are fighting that darkness with flowers.
“I wanted to make something to counterbalance all the destruction and all of the death,’’ Halbout said.
Ukrainian-born abstract impressionist Elena Samarsky of West New York earned a Ph.D in Sociology at Oxford University before embarking on a career as a full-time artist. She has exhibited her work throughout Europe and the United States.
“As a Ukrainian-born artist, the war in Ukraine had a tremendous effect on me and my art,” Samarsky said.
Native New Jerseyan Melanka Coppola of Howell is exhibiting abstract acrylic paintings that reflect her reverence for the Ukrainian heritage she embraced growing up with four Ukrainian-born grandparents who encouraged her exploration of Ukrainian dance, music, art and embroidery. Her work conveys a strong graphic presence, vibrant color and use of pattern.
“As the war in Ukraine continues, we wanted to shine a light on artists here in New Jersey who may be impacted,” said Art Alliance exhibit curator Eileen Kennedy.
Halbout’s Mission
All the proceeds from the sale of Halbout’s work will go toward purchasing needed supplies for Ukraine’s wounded veterans, she said. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, people of Ukrainian heritage around the world wept, worried – and then went to work, doing whatever practical thing they hoped would support the soldiers battling for their country and the citizens of Ukraine whose lives had been upended.
Halbout and her husband, David, a furniture designer who teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, were among the first to take up the cause, using their own money to purchase tourniquets and other medical supplies to help soldiers survive the battlefield.
Halbout, an American citizen who is a nurse as well as an artist, grew up in Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv – a city so vibrant and beautiful that she and her husband had talked of retiring there one day, she said. Now, that city is in the crosshairs of a deadly conflict.
As they assembled their care packages for Ukraine, the Halbouts also tried to let others know about Ukraine’s history, what was happening there, and why it deserved the world’s attention. Initially entirely self-funded, their efforts soon drew support from friends who wanted to help and, as word spread, the Halbouts started a GoFundMe page dedicated solely to bringing needed supplies to wounded veterans.
In a great war, it might appear that small efforts matter little. But walking hand in hand with the bigger picture is a quieter truth the Halbouts know all too well – among the many things war is, it is above all personal, an experience that impacts individual lives in a way that echoes down the generations.
It was a reality that Nathalie encountered daily during the five months she spent in Kyiv during spring and summer 2025. Through her medical contacts in Ukraine, Nathalie began volunteering in chronically understaffed hospitals where wounded soldiers filled the beds.
Some would return to the battlefield; others, severely wounded, would not fight again and would learn to live with lost limbs and the internal scars of war. During her time there, Nathalie sat at the bedsides of wounded soldiers, a friendly face and a listening heart in their season of trouble. But her support was far from passive. If they had a need, Nathalie tried to meet it, helping them resurrect the remnants of their past lives; securing computers to help them connect with loved ones too far away to visit. She also located necessary medical items, such as crutches, pressure mattresses, clothing and medications.
And she listened – listened to stories of fallen comrades, lost loved ones, fear and pain, and the uncertainties of the future.
Eventually, she began writing about them, recording the stories she believed should never be forgotten. At first, she was reluctant to take photos of the soldiers she met, many of whom were severely wounded. But she soon discovered that many appreciated having this photographic evidence of their survival. “They have such faces of courage,” she said.
Safe at home now, Nathalie thinks of them daily.
“If you want to be my best friend, ask me about the soldiers,” she said. “I keep in touch with several guys to see how they’re doing. It’s important to know, and for the guys, it’s an important connection.”
Many times, the soldiers are surprised when Nathalie tells them that the money she used to buy what they need was donated by her American friends and neighbors, who have turned up on their doorstep with checks or donations. “They say, ‘I didn’t think they cared about us,’ ’’ she said. The fact that so many Americans have reached out to the Halbouts helps her reassure these veterans that they care very much.
In addition to the exhibit at the Art Alliance, Nathalie will be showing her work in a display window at the Atlantic Highlands Arts Council from April 5 to May 9.
And when spring arrives this year, she hopes to return to Kyiv and resume her work as a hospital volunteer again.
“I am an artist and a nurse,” Halbout said. “I am driven by both the need to create and the need to heal.”
The article originally appeared in the January 22 – 28, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
