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Fr. Peter Funk, O.S.B., is the prior of the Monastery of the Holy Cross, a contemplative Benedictine monastery in the archdiocese of Chicago.  Before entering monastic life in 1997, he was a choral conductor at St. Thomas the Apostle parish and the University of Chicago.  His exposure to great Renaissance composers such as Palestrina and Victoria was catalytic in his desire to enter religious life as well as his interest in the power of Catholic culture to evangelize.  Having studied theology at St. John's School of Theology in Collegeville, Minnesota, where he majored in Scripture, he was ordained to the priesthood in May 2004.

Michael Ambron is a Queens-based artist whose work explores time, perception, and the relationships between materiality and emergent forms of consciousness. He received his BFA from Tyler School of Art and his MFA from The Ohio State University. Michael is the owner and operator of Paint Makers Notes LLC, a company that provides customized paints, educational demonstrations, and technical assistance to artists and designers of every background. 

You can see more of his work with raw materials in the documentary “Color,” by artist Alteronce Gumby and director John Campbell, now streaming on Comcast and XUMO.

https://play.xumo.com/free-movies/color/XM0A4RZ5JA1QJT

Tim van Laar is a Detroit visual artist and writer who exhibits his artwork nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions in Germany, the UK, and The Netherlands. He has written numerous reviews and essays and co-authored four books, including Artworld Prestige: Arguing Cultural Value (Oxford), and Shiny Things: Reflective Surfaces and Their Mixed Meanings (Intellect). His creative activities have been supported by institutions such as Fulbright, Yaddo, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and The Henry Luce Foundation. He received his MFA from Wayne State University and is Professor of Art Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

David Greenwood's stories have appeared in Electric Literature, Fence, Tin House online, and elsewhere. His debut novel, The Cloud Intern, will be published on May 27th. He has a BA in computer science from Boston University, and an MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College. His ongoing micro-novels project, The Bubble Cannon, can be found on Substack, his literary fitness videos on YouTube. 

Letha Wilson is a visual artist based in New York (Craryville and Brooklyn) who was born in Honolulu, HI and raised in Greeley, Colorado. She is known for her synthesis of mediums, expanding the visual and physical dimensions of photography and sculpture.  By combining industrial materials such as Corten steel, aluminum, vinyl and photography, Wilson has developed unique fabrication processes.  She prints images depicting the beauty of natural landscapes onto her sculptures, embeds them in the surface of her works, and manipulates them in various unexpected compositions.   

Robert Westerholm, Ph.D. is an NYC-based clinical psychologist who specializes in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for the treatment of anxiety and mood disorders across the lifespan.  Dr. Westerholm and his wife, fashion designer Monica Wesley, are avid art collectors who have been building their contemporary art collection over the last 15 years.

Ajahn Kovilo is an Ohio-born Theravāda forest monk. Having been introduced to meditation, the five precepts, and the Pāli Canon through the Goenka tradition, Ajahn Kovilo’s growing interest in Dhamma led him to enter the monastery in 2006 in hopes of devoting his life to practice. Ajahn Kovilo received full ordination from Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California in 2010, and spent the next decade training at monasteries and with teachers of the Ajahn Chah tradition in America and Thailand.

Paul Mogensen became known for his single-color many paneled paintings utilizing mathematical ratios, which were first shown at the Bykert Gallery in New York City in 1966. Throughout his career, he continued to use mathematical principles in conjunction with basic designs and color to distill painting to its most essential nature, while infusing his work with a tension that exists as a result of inherently opposing qualities.