Laurie Cross Muench lives in McMinnville, OR with her husband, Alan and serves as Parish Administrator at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in McMinnville. She is affiliated with the Classical Iconography Institute, a fine arts educational nonprofit, founded at Mt. Angel Abbey in 1987, which is dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of the ancient sacred art, of iconography.
While visiting an art exhibit in 2017, Laurie first learned about the Classical Iconography Institute's classes. Thrilled at the chance to learn the technique which had fascinated her for so long, Laurie immediately signed up for the class. Since then, she has continuously taken classes and passionately researched the ancient tradition of painting holy images.