The heart of our mission is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our communities. In the recent weeks, we’ve had the privilege to connect with some incredible artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rabble rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with the incredible group below. Check out our favorite stories from across the Voyage family.
Jasmine Allmon
My name is Jasmine Allmon and I’m the proud owner of Allmon Artistry, located in Knoxville TN. I’m an 8 year licensed medical aesthetician, educator and trainer, a licensed cosmetic & paramedical tattoo practitioner. I specialize in corrective skincare, waxing and scar/stretchmark camouflage, 3D areola and scalp density tattooing. Read more>>
Melissa Lushbaugh
During college, I began my career in restaurants, working as a server and bartender before quickly advancing to leadership and marketing roles in high-end establishments. I served as head bartender and later transitioned into marketing and event planning for several fine dining restaurants in Boca Raton, Florida. I also gained marketing experience in an internship position with Keller Williams Real Estate. Read more>>
Reed Bacon
After 10 years in the corporate world, Reed knew it was time to make a change and follow his dream of owning his own business, with the goal of helping others and making a positive impact in his community. Reed and his wife, Megan, have always had a heart for helping and serving others. They knew they could connect with people by helping them declutter their lives and reshape their spaces. Read more>>
Alison George
My love for nature started long before they came along. Back when I was a student in Savannah, Georgia, I met my husband at 19, and our idea of a perfect day involved hiking, camping, fishing, boating, and hunting for shark teeth on Tybee Island. Those adventures sparked my passion for capturing wildlife and landscapes in my art, and that passion has never faded. Read more>>
Kelly Hider
Since then, I’ve dedicated myself to supporting programs at Arrowmont, a nationally recognized non-profit craft school, in several staff positions – moving from Gallery Manager, to Youth Education Programs Manager, and most recently my position as Arrowmont’s Director of National Programs. So, my background is mostly in drawing & painting and fine art, but I’ve learned a lot about craft practices at Arrowmont – ceramics, textiles, metal smithing, woodturning. I still make and exhibit my own work and have a studio with two other artists in south Knoxville. Read more>>
Ollie And Kylie Ollie Moder And Kylie Preston
Kylie began experimenting with electroforming in 2017, supported by YouTube tutorials and a beginners electroforming kit. She has sold her work independently over the years under the name “Woodland to Seaside,” using organic materials found in her own backyard and the beaches of her family vacations. Although she loved her work, she found herself losing inspiration after a few years, and eventually stopped creating altogether. Read more>>
Matthew Schott
I was born and raised in Nashville, then moved to Johnson city to earn my bachelor’s in animation. After college, I moved to Knoxville to be closer to family and friends. Over the past seven years, I have lived in Knoxville and watched this city grow with so many opportunities. Using my knowledge of art and by networking through my work in the service industry, I found Glassadazical in 2019 through a music festival in Michigan and we soon discovered we were both from Knoxville. Since then I have been helping grow the brand until this past year when we were presented with the opportunity to create a collective space for all the glass artists in the Knoxville area. Read more>>
Susanna Bolton
I learned so much and I was absolutely on fire with excitement for my new profession. I finished the program and became a Licensed Massage Therapist in 2018. After receiving my license, I had opportunities to work and learn in a variety of types of settings including working under a mentor for Craniosacral Therapy, a small business setting, a larger corporate setting, and for a time, I worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Roane State Massage Therapy Program. I enjoyed elements of each setting and learned a great deal from each practice. Read more>>
Julia
Loof’n Round’s product line offers a caffeine-free sweet green tea using dried mature loofah vine leaves, skincare & haircare products using the loofah seed oil we press from the hundreds of seeds inside each loofah scrub, the gourds for consumption and skincare products, loofah vine water for skincare cleansers and toners – and these are all on top of the multitude of ways to utilize natural scrubs beyond cleaning your skin. Read more>>
Christian Freeman
The reality is I am taxed like everyone else plus I pay a self employment tax, and have to provide my own health insurance and liability insurance. Loads of time is spent on picking up materials, designing their projects, etc… that they are not privy too or consider. And 9 out of 10 clients want a deep discount. As a single parent and sole provider it has been a struggle to educate clients about costs and convince them my product is monitarily valuable. Read more>>
Dea Denton
So, now suddenly I’m here, able to fully allow my self to make art so welcome to the beginning of this journey, I’ve changed my studio name with this new start due to finally finding where I stand not only with myself as a person but also with my art style and aesthetics, my old name was Arivae Studio meaning ‘sunlight’ in Tolkien’s fantasy language Elvish. Now its changed to Niphradil arts meaning ‘little white flower’ or it can also be translated to ‘snowdrop’ so, my art style I’m showcasing here is the beginning of me finally able to focus 100% to my art, I’m sure things will continue to change as I continue to learn more and grow. Read more>>
Melia Hipsky
My story began many moons ago when it was obvious that I had a passion for animals. As a young child, I was always loving on my dogs and cats. As I grew up, I stayed close to my animals and the unconditional love that they offered. Jenny was a sheltie that I adopted from The Humane Society of TN Valley in 2006, with help from my mom. Jenny was always just as sweet as the day I met her. She had a calming nature that just being around her would make a bad day, turn good. Jenny had the purest heart and sweetest soul and she loved me unconditionally. She was my girl. Read more>>
Jason Pasacreta
This is where the fun started to begin. As I was getting questions about the business and specifically what I made, I realized the company name was not right to be able to grow into what I wanted. I changed the name and JBird Custom Woodworking was born. My family and I decided that this was the time in our lives that we needed to make a change to be able to better ourselves and our family. We made the big step of moving to southeast Tennessee. For the business, this is probably the best thing I could have asked for. I am experiencing growth and recognition like I have never received before. Read more>>
Steve Wilson
In late December 2021, Susie and I were sitting in our favorite Gatlinburg Café, Split Rail Eats, talking about how cool it would be to have a little bookstore right next-door to Split Rail. That truly was the beginning of our dream and it came to fruition as we opened the Next Chapter Bookshop on April 1, 2022. For the first year, we were in a space right next-door to Split Rail and we stayed there until moving to our current location. Neither of us had any retail or bookstore experience, so we visited a number of other stores, and, even today, we continue to learn more about the industry. Read more>>
Kerry Brown
I’m the fourth generation living on family land in West Knox County. My modern homestead, Bluebird Hill, was established in the fall of 2020 and is designed and operated following the concepts and principles of permaculture – a system of design and implementation that honors and works with natural systems to bring harmony and abundance to the landscape. For 14 years prior to returning to family land, my wife and I developed an urban homestead in North Knoxville that focused on intensive, small space food production along with soil and habitat improvement, micro-livestock systems and frugal living techniques. Read more>>
Shannon Herron
I earned both my Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art and a Master’s in Transmedia Design from the University of Tennessee. After starting my career at UT’s Center for Student Engagement, I transitioned to Dogwood Arts in 2018, where I now serve as the Marketing & Creative Director. In this role, I get to blend design, marketing strategy, and storytelling to promote the 20+ annual events and programs hosted by our organization. Read more>>
Cristina Grecu
I moved in Us in 2015, in 2017 I went to NYFW, in Feb 2020 I opened my shop, first with some of my designs only, in 2022 I bought an inventory of bridal gowns (over 750) ready for rent or sale, I am doing alterations, custom made dresses and steaming services! In 2024 I represented USA for London Fashion week, from 250 designers only 5 of them were chosen, I was one of them! Lately I just attended to the pink bridal show in Knoxville (Feb 2th) and NYFW as a guest (Feb 9th) Read more>>
