The heart of our mission at VoyageLA is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our city. In the recent weeks we’ve had the privilege to connect with some of South Bay’s finest artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rebel rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with our city’s incredibly deep talent pool. Check out the area’s rising stars below.
Lisa Menard Schmahl
I vividly remember my first anxiety attack. Fourth grade. Skiles Test Elementary. The walls closed in and my breath left me. Then in my early twenties, I called 911 to report a heart attack that was, luckily, a panic attack. Read more>>
Lynda Arnold
Thank you for inviting me to speak about my work here on VoyageLA! I am a a certified sound meditation facilitator, vocalist & multi-Instrumentalist, music producer, composer and performer based in Long Beach, CA. I’ve felt the calling to be a musician and artist as long as I can remember. Read more>>
Jeasy Monroy
About seven years ago, I was a program director for Social Vocational Services, a program that helps adults with disabilities. I took some time off when my daughter was born and decided to take up cake decorating as a hobby. I took a couple of classes at Michael’s and instantly fell in love (I like to considered myself an artistic person). Read more>>
Greg Muren
I think that one unusual aspect of my story of becoming a farmed animal advocate is that I actually had no intent at all to do it until I was almost thirty. I loved animals growing up, like most people, but I didn’t spend much time thinking about our food system or, really, about social justice at all. Read more>>
Makoto Mizutani, Benjamin Luddy
We started Scout Regalia in 2008, and we’re celebrating 10 years this year. We’re a Los Angeles based, multi-tasking design practice obsessed with the design and fabrication of space, furniture, products, and interiors. Read more>>
Mike Collins
There are two threads to this story, and they stay intertwined throughout. Creativity and Crowds. I had two beginnings to getting into painting. The first was in the 80’s and involved skateboarding. My parents let my squad build a giant halfpipe in our backyard and this became the place where the crowd gathered. Read more>>
Blair Cohn
When I went to college I had to stop playing in bands but decided to manage the bands my friends were in. I booked the shows out of my dorm room. I did that for a few years after graduation until I had the epiphany that I wasn’t the shark type to be an agent or manager. Read more>>
Mike Cubillos
I was studying Radio-TV-Film at Cal State Northridge, with plans to go into TV or film production. Part of the curriculum was that we had to take an internship. Since I’d always been heavily into music, I decided to to apply to a few different record companies and ended up gettign an internship at what was then MCA Records. From there I ended up with another internship at a label called Zoo Entertainment, which was a subsidiary of BMG. Read more>>
Drew Grabiner
I would first like to say how excited I am to have the possible opportunity to be featured. To think of where my life was just one year ago and where it is now….. it makes me smile . My story begins at the age of 19 when I graduated Culinary School in Pasadena and moved to NYC. I then climbed the ranks as a pastry chef only to leave that behind to focus on a more health conscious approach to life. Read more>>
Marco Colucci
When I was a child I had an extreme interest in taking photos with my mothers camera. It was mostly because I was forbidden from touching it, but the rebel child in me would say “Do it anyway, Marco” I loved photographing my cousin doing jumps near the house next door that was being framed from the foundation. We would make jumps and just get into mischief. Skateboarding, biking and trouble was my inspiration back then. Read more>>
