FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS

Visual Artists

Samuel Albert

Samuel first discovered his passion for art at the age of 8, exploring with various mediums and creating countless pieces of oceanscapes. He is drawn to imperfections in nature and capturing the beauty of the world around him. Samuel has been a member of St. Matthew’s his whole life, where he currently serves as an acolyte.

Emily Bontrager

Emily is an icon painter (also known as an “iconographer”) who works mainly in the Coptic Orthodox style to depict saints from church history or scenes from Scripture. She shares her work and thoughts on iconography on her Instagram @iconsbyemily. The pieces displayed here are commissions from various members of St. Matthew’s.

Jack Burns

An expert in engineering and constructing high-performance stainless exhaust systems, Jack founded Burns Stainless in 1989 to supply components to professional engine builders and skilled craftsmen. He sold Burns Stainless Steel in 2017, and founded Parkway Ford Heritage Mission in 2020. Their mission is to build a fast racecar that can compete at the highest levels of its class, to share the love of Christ to the drag racing community, and to create programs that cultivate students in the industrial arts, within high-performing maker spaces, under the tutelage of master craftsmen.

Lila Butler

Lila Butler began her interest in art at an early age and quickly grew in her abilities to the delight of her family. She began learning color theory at the age of five, and can be found at least once a week in the household art studio working on her craft. She especially enjoys painting with acrylics and inks, and loves to draw.

Peggy Butler

Peggy Butler established her interest in abstract art in the first grade when she was reprimanded for refusing to color within the lines. She has studied fine portraiture for many years, and attended Laguna College of Art & Design. She now teaches children's color theory and painting classes. She specializes in oils, acrylics, and inks.

Michelle Day

Michelle is a wife, mother, adventurer and artist. When she turned 50, sculpting became a high priority as she received her calling to bring Scripture alive through sculpture. She has been blessed to have studied with truly amazing artists for the last 20 years, and hopes to create many more sculptures over the next 20. She is passionate about communicating to others what God has done for her.

George Geisler

Primarily an oil painter, George has been painting since 2004, nearly ten years after teaching college life drawing at Laguna College of Art and Design and Mt. SAC; then 12 years at Art Institute of California where he taught drawing, design, perspective, color theory and typography.

Constance Hubbard

Constance studied fine art at Orange Coast College and Art Center Pasadena College of Design. She later taught fine art at Mariners Christian School for K-8th grade. In addition, she created the K-8th fine art curriculum for the school, and also taught parents and teachers at night. She studied Plein Air Painting for a short time at Irvine Valley College with Jeff Horn. She now has a design practice in Mission Viejo, and lives with her son Michael and dog Bluebelle. She has attended St. Matthew’s since Trinity Sunday 2009.

Mandy Peterson

Mandy is a culinary artist, illustrator, and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. Through her longstanding engagement with artist initiatives, Mandy's work explores the intersection of faith, art, and hospitality. In 2018, she served as an Artist in Residence for the EDGE Project in Altea, Spain, and continued this exploration in 2019 as one of Saddleback Church's Resident Artists. Mandy finds joy in cultivating nourishing rhythms in community that fuel meaningful work and vibrant relationships.

Joshua Watson

Joshua is a photographer and arts organizer. He is co-founder of Art for the Isolated, whose mission it is to bring consequential art and poetry to hospital and care spaces. In his spare time, Joshua moonlights as an art framer and helps organize the board game ministry at St. Matthew’s. You can find his work at Artfortheisolated.org.

Abigail Whitten

Since she could hold a pencil, Abigail has been expressing her imagination through art. For the past year she has been training at Mission: Renaissance Fine Art Academy, experimenting with various mediums. Her true love is the intersection of the endearing and the realistic.

Spoken Word Artists

Erik Peterson

Erik enjoys the process of playing with words and images to make poems, preferably under the influence of caffeine. He has shared his creations in coffee shops, church stages and Zoom rooms.

Tap here to access his poems after tonight’s reading.

Victoria Perry

Victoria Perry has been singing since she was 2, and poetry has always challenged and intrigued her. A working mom, she cherishes the moments over the years during spiritual retreats or a quiet evening at the kitchen table, when she has tried her hand at capturing fleeting moments and deep truths, searching for an adequate turn of phrase, layering images and meaning. Victoria studied liberal arts, majoring in history, at Biola University’s Torrey Honors College.

Fr. John Crews

Fr. John saw James Bond ski off a glacier in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ at 4 years old and from that day on, he loved movies and stories. He earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Individualized Studies in English & Film & Television; graduated from the Professional Program in Screenwriting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, & Television; earned a Master of Arts (MA) in Philosophy, exploring the reality of Story & Narrative, from the University of Buckingham; and obtained an MA in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, completing the trifecta of useless degrees.

Alea Peister

Alea’s writing has been featured in Relief, Solum, The Curator, Vita Poetica, Ekstasis, and Art for the Isolated, among others. In 2025 she will graduate with an MFA in Spiritual Writing from Seattle Pacific University. Alea is passionate about the relationship between creativity and prayer. She daylights as a copywriter at Deloitte Digital, where she specializes in sustainability reporting. When she's not writing, she enjoys hiking, looking at art, watching comedy, and doing her best to help her houseplants thrive. You can follow her writerly escapades on Instagram at @alea_peister and Substack at aleapeister.substack.com.

Fr. Hayden Butler

Fr. Hayden studied poetry as part of his undergraduate education in Literature. He has been an amateur poet for almost twenty years, has published a few poems in local periodicals, and has read at local open-mic nights. He is particularly inspired by the styles of T.S. Eliot, Li-Young Lee, and Christina Rossetti.

Musicians

Elaine Neuss

Elaine Neuss grew up in a musical home where she began piano lessons at age eight and violin at age nine. She studied classical music privately throughout high school and continued studying to ‘perfect’ her playing the violin, a most challenging instrument.

After years of playing in community orchestras and church, her interest is now chamber music. During COVID she studied bel canto voice with Kate Gremillion, and sings in the choir from time to time.

Music is a vehicle to express her emotions and love of God. It is her ministry.

Kevin Ryan

Kevin Ryan is a luthier and woodworker: ryanguitars.com.

Bob Bennett

What about Bob? He’s been playing guitar, singing, and writing songs his whole life (since age ten). He’s one of the few people you’ll meet who gets to do “the one thing” they always wanted to do! If interested, you can find more details on Wikipedia and his website (bobbennett.com). He’s so very happy to take part in this St. Matthew’s Festival of the Arts, and is excited it’s becoming a regular part of our Church life.

Kate Gremillion

Grammy-award-winning contralto Kate Gremillion was a student of Virginia Zeani at Indiana University as well as a protégé of Dr. Bruce Chamberlain. Winner of numerous awards, she has performed professionally at Carnegie and Disney Hall as well as Segerstrom Center and The Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale (with whom she toured Europe this past summer). She has been a featured soloist with the Pacific Chorale, Meistersingers, Meritage Vocal Ensemble and the Long Beach Symphony and Camerata.

Kate is a cantor at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in Newport Beach. As a dramatic artist she created the role of Lindsay in the original musical Fanny at Chez Panisse (alongside Tom Hulce and Jill Eikenberry) and has performed roles such as Despina, Rosina, Carmen and Dido. She also served as backup singer for Josh Groban during his “Harmony” Tour.

Ms. Gremillion runs a private voice and piano studio and is the founder of the St. Matthews Choir School, which has the distinction of being the most awarded program in the United States by the Royal School of Church Music. Her newest venture is founder and director of the Music Conservatory at Bethel Classical Academy in Irvine, California.