Brendan Kulp was raised in
a traditional Orthodox family, and is the son of Father Thomas Kulp, an
Orthodox Priest in the Russian Church Abroad. Brendan has been an artist since his
youth, and spent many years developing and illustrating comic books and children's
stories. Soon after the birth of his second daughter Brendan made a life
changing pilgrimage to the Monastery of Saint Anthony in Arizona. He returned home with the desire to devote the
rest of his life to painting Icons. An experienced Iconographer happened to be
attending his father's Church at that time, and with his guidance, Brendan was
able to learn the basics of Iconography. After painting and selling a
number of Icons on his own, he was hired to assist Monk Theodore, the head
Iconographer at nearby St Isaac of Syria Skete. Brendan spent nearly two years working
with and assisting the monks in the Icon Studio there. During this
time, Brendan also had the privilege of training under Master
Iconographer, Dmitri Andreyev. Brendan and his wife, Marie, have four
children: Lydia, Anysia, Alexander, and Cecilia, and are members of the
Church of St. John the Baptist, in rural Wisconsin, where his father serves.
Dimitri Kulp is the
third son and sixth child (of nine!) of Father Thomas and Matushka Elizabeth
Kulp. He spent five years in Kodiak, Alaska where he attended St. Innocent's Academy. There he learned woodworking
and many other crafts. The Academy is supported, for the most part, by
resident young men who have finished school there or who are there to live the
semi-monastic life in order to heal their souls. The young men do many jobs in
the community at large in order to provide for the needs of the many people who
live at or are ministered to by St. Innocent's. One interesting project
that Dimitri was involved in in the summer of 2008, was the restoration of a
gravesite that was found on a privately owned island near Kodiak. The
graves were discovered to be those of a mother and child who had died during an
influenza epidemic in the early 1900's. When the owner found it, the site
was in very bad repair and he decided to restore it as close to the original
form as was possible. Dimitri built a picket fence to surround the site
and built a large Russian cross to put over the graves. When his parents
visited Kodiak this summer, Dimitri and Father Thomas together installed the
fence and the cross. Other projects he was involved in at the Academy
were the building of wooden coffins, making wooden toys for their Christmas
bazaar, and various interior and exterior jobs on the Academy buildings and in
the community. At home, Dimitri has done many renovations on his parents'
old farmhouse, and is planning this summer to build a community center with
workshop and icon studio in the barn.
| 
