Visual Art

Berlin 1939

Robert Weiss is an artist/painter born in Galveston, Texas in 1983. He attended Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts to study painting, and pursued a BFA in Printmaking at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Upon graduating, Robert returned to Galveston to teach painting, ceramics and film at Ball High School. With his film students, he created a film detailing the devastating effects of Hurricane Ike on Galveston entitled Ike: A Documentary: The Story of a Torn City Rebuilt by Everyday Heroes (2009). For his notable achievements with his students and documentary, Robert was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award and Teacher of the Year Award from Galveston Independent School District. Robert obtained his MFA from Syracuse University where he studied painting and drawing, and served as an adjunct professor of drawing. Robert currently teaches film at the Episcopal School of Dallas. He is an active painter and filmmaker of documentaries and narrative fiction.

The Ocean’s Dream

Anna Martin is a visual artist and writer, native to Baltimore, Maryland, and currently based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. She is an avid explorer and much of her artwork is inspired by her travels; her work is also heavily influenced by nature and science. Anna’s work has been previously exhibited in various galleries and museums, such as the Rosenberg Gallery, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. She has also been published in various art magazines such as Grub Street, Litro, Green Writer’s Press, and Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine. Anna also frequently works under the pseudonym Vacantia, and more of her work can be found at her online gallery: http://www.vacantia.org.

I Used to Believe There Was an Ending to This Hunger

Despy Boutris’s writing has been published or is forthcoming in Copper Nickel, American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, Colorado Review, The Journal, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Currently, she teaches at the University of Houston and serves as Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast, Guest Editor for Palette Poetry and Frontier, and Editor-in-Chief of The West Review.

The Devil and I

Ashley L. Gnar is an artist based in Southern California who grew up in Europe and the Pacific Northwest. Her work focuses on feelings of alienation and moments of transition, as well as the incorporation of natural themes in human portraits because she believes that a stronger bond with nature is incredibly important.

Hustle and Struggle

Aluu Prosper is a multidisciplinary, self-taught visual artist creating mostly within the field of paintings, drawings, and sculpture. He is from Afikpo North, in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. He grew up learning how to draw through practice and drawing diagrams of school assignments.