Mid-Wilshire Inspiration

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 Mid-Wilshire’s (and K-Town, WeHo, Mid-City) finest artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rabble rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with our city’s incredibly deep talent pool.  Check out Mid-Wilshire’s rising stars below.

Chad Weller

I started my journey through personal experience with the same challenges I now help others navigate—feeling the pressure to perform, trying to manage too many priorities at once, and realizing that success on the outside doesn’t always equal clarity or fulfillment on the inside. Read more>>

Gleici Rufatto

I’m a Brazilian artist based in Los Angeles, working across painting and photography. My work started through photography, especially documenting architecture, light, and color in everyday spaces. Over time, I became more interested in abstraction and in how color itself could create atmosphere and emotion, which naturally led me toward painting. Living in Los Angeles strongly shaped my visual language. Read more>>

Shanaya Santos

Growing up, I was constantly moving from country to country because of my father’s job, so I became familiar with goodbyes to places, people, and even versions of myself. Through all of that change, the one thing that always remained constant was my curiosity and creativity. Film became my escape. Read more>>

Anastasia Surkova

I’ve always been a very artistic person. Growing up, I went to a music academy, and creativity was always at the center of my life. Music, fashion, film, and art were the things that inspired me the most from a really young age. Read more>>

Yasmeen Abouremeleh

I started Ya Albi because I wanted to create a Palestinian brand that felt more personal, design-driven, and emotionally connected than what I was seeing around me. Olive oil was the starting point because it already carried so much meaning for me culturally and personally, but over time the brand became way bigger than just olive oil. A lot of it happened pretty naturally. Read more>>

Joshua Kindt

Growing up in New Jersey, movement became more than just exercise for me, it became a form of healing, self-awareness and connection. I’ve been practicing yoga for over 12 years and what first started as curiosity slowly transformed into a lifelong passion for understanding both the mind and the body. Over time, yoga taught me how to slow down, reflect and challenge myself with compassion. Read more>>

Talita Trygsland

I was born and raised in Kristiansand, Norway — a small coastal city where I spent my early years in retail management and visual merchandising. I’ve always been drawn to creating environments that feel intentional and beautiful. That instinct followed me across the world when I made the decision to move to Los Angeles over 16 years ago. Read more>>

Kristin Marquet

Thank you for the interview opportunity! I started my career at the intersection of branding, PR, and digital media, originally focused on helping service-based businesses build visibility through storytelling and strategic positioning. Over time, that work evolved from client services into something more structured and scalable—building proprietary frameworks around the user experience, brand development, messaging, and audience growth. Read more>>

Karin Busch

I’ve honestly been surrounded by cameras for as long as I can remember. Growing up, documenting life was just something my family naturally did. One of my grandpas constantly carried a camera around taking photos of absolutely everything, while the other loved filming family moments on video. Looking back, I think that’s where my fascination with preserving memories really started. Read more>>

Leron Konowiecki

My story is one I never thought would have a happy ending. For 20 years, I was deep in hard drug addiction — and everything that comes with that life. Homelessness, crime, prison. That was my street, my world. I couldn’t see a way out, and honestly, for a long time I wasn’t looking for one. Read more>>