Downtown 1.8.17

Zachary Toth

Located in Atlanta GA by way of Pittsburgh PA. Zachary is Art Institute Alumni with a Bachelor of Science in Photography & Design. Zachary got his start originally as a musician/writer/composer/artist and as a graffiti artist including ventures in illustration, street + mural art. After years of recording and producing commercial + fine art, he found his love with the camera and unique perspective. This is when he fell in love with Photography. Since then Zachary has devoted his recent professional commercial career in Weddings, Events + Portraits. All while still maintaining a presence in the Fine Art world with Surrealism and Abstract + Creative Portraits. Read More>>

Alex Lanei

I started thinking seriously about art during my senior year in high school when we got the complete freedom to develop an art piece during a year-long project. I ended up creating a kinetic sculpture with comic pages attached to its mobile components to create an enhanced storytelling experience. My design ended up being a little ambitious but, the opportunity to explore my creativity exposed to something that I enjoyed and eventually became pretty good at. Since going to SCAD I’ve been able to find some direction for my art. The subjects that I focus on, include identity, diversity, and discovery, which come from my own experiences traveling and living in many different countries around the world. Read More>>

Greg Owens

After serving 12 years in the Navy and traveling the world I began to fall in love with taking pictures with more interest into all the different details that go into taking a picture from just a vacation memory to be able to tell a story with my photographs. I moved to Atlanta in 2012 to attend the Art Institute of Atlanta to major in Videography. After completion, I landed my first internship with Hitz187.9 Streetwatchradio the number one internet radio station in Atlanta. Working with the radio station allowed me to network my way into various freelance opportunities from taking pictures and video for birthday parties and weddings. Traveling around Atlanta I have also completed profile pieces for local businesses to help them with content for their websites to boost business. I now work with a group of talented people in various fields of entertainment for a company called OnTheRiseATL. We are dedicated to bringing all of the up and coming talent in Atlanta right into the faces of everyone interested in music, video, photography, sound production and behind the scenes. With interviews we allow people to tell their stories and we give them a format to show their talents. Read More>>

Theresa Eze

Amogechukwu ‘Theresa’ Ezeanyim has known all her life that her passion is hair care. In fact, Theresa’s unique gift of hair care is not just a holistic adventure for everyone who has been a client of this hair professional, but it is also simply her purpose. She is an ardent promoter of why people no matter where they’re from, must embrace the beauty of their natural hair and is delighted to be presenting her new brand, Omalicha Naturelle, which means Beautiful Natural in the Igbo language from her ancestry. Her new line of holistic hair care treatment, products, and solutions, are ready to hit the market. Read More>>

Catherine Jacqueline

I have owned a hair salon before and was bitten by the hair bug again. I missed the salon atmosphere and the feeling that comes with it when you make someone look as good on the outside as they feel on the inside. I began my salon search and fell in love with an existing salon that was for sale; I decided to purchase it. I was fortunate that a couple of the stylist wanted to stay and a few more stylists that were friends came aboard. It has been very hard at times, the salon name change and the telephone went with the old owner, but we (my stylist and I) as a group are working very hard and have been at this location for a little over 2 years. At this point, we are now starting our retail services and feel like nothing can get in the way of our success! Read More>>

Steve Weindorf

We started as a small, mom n pop entertainment company in 1988. Since then, we’ve grown to become among the largest suppliers of professional entertainment services and theme décor in the entire southeastern United States. Our success is directly related to the level of service we offer our clients since we are almost a 100% referral business now. What sets us apart from other professional entertainment providers is that due to the volume of work we do, we only represent the very best-rated entertainers available, who are willing to offer their services at a discounted rate. This way, our professional Event Coordinators can assist the clients in every step of their event, while still providing them with cost savings! Read More>>

Leslie Pierce

As a child, I always loved the water. I was the type of child who always thought I knew ‘how to swim’. After a couple of near drowning accidents, my father signed me up for swimming lessons at the nearest swimming pool. After a couple of weeks of learn-to-swim classes, my father registered me for the county swim team where I learned more about the different strokes and became introduced to competitive swimming. Read More>>

Henry Stokes

My father introduced me to cigars, he actually gave me my first cigar for my 16th birthday, it was a Montecristo No. 2. From that point on I was in love with cigars and the overall lifestyle of cigars. After leaving college, I worked in music managing artist, songwriters and producers working with artists such as Usher, Justin Bieber, and The Backstreet Boys to name a few. During my transition out of music, I began to get more and more interested in the overall process of cigar production, it was no longer just enough to smoke a cigar, I wanted to know everything about them. During the summer of 2014, I decided that I wanted to start my own cigar brand, I searched for months and months to find a manufacturer that would work with me. Once I finally found one my new struggle was distribution and marketing, how would I get these cigars into shops and how would I tell people about them. That’s when the lightbulb went off, and April 2015 I started an online magazine, Tailored Ash. The plan was to use this magazine to teach people about the lifestyle of cigars and in the process I could spread the word about my own cigar brand. Read More>>

Joye “JoJo” Gilbert-Ross

10.5 years ago I signed up to work out with Operation Boot Camp in Piedmont Park. After one workout I was “in.” The team atmosphere, the early mornings, the fun and burn of the workout, all had me at “hooah.” I had been a high school athlete but never really liked running or working out and took a hiatus while in college. I had gained some weight, lost some weight and was looking for a way to up my workout ante. After 2 months as a camper, I joined the instructor team and worked out in Piedmont Park 5:30AM-7AM for the next year. In 2006, the OBC owners decided to start franchising their business and I signed on for the first Atlanta franchise taking over the Candler Park/Decatur area. Myself, campers, and instructors have been pushing- up and burpeeing all over the Decatur area since! Read More>>

MYKA HARRIS

I started WAX in 2009 because I couldn’t find a place where I wanted to get waxed after moving back from Europe. Every place treated waxing as an afterthought and I wanted a different experience. Read More>>

Scott Cook

I’ve been fortunate to work in several different creative environments over the years, with a variety of amazing people and clients. I started out my career in civil engineering design and then moving through catacombs of the web design and the digital advertising world, eventually landing in product design. Read More>>

Tawny Swain

I started modeling at a very young age. When I was 11 I moved to Los Angeles and luckily became fairly successful as a child model and actress. At 13, I moved back to Atlanta and attended high school like your average teenager. Once I started college, Playboy contacted me and I have worked for them for the past 3 years. Working for Playboy has opened a ton of doors for me as a model, and I’ve been modeling full time ever since. Read More>>

Michael Rivera

From very young, I knew I always wanted to do something in the creative world, and that passion has never left me. Upon deciding that I was going feet first into the creative world in high school I began researching art schools and found that SCAD was going to be a perfect fit for me. While I was in college I had many professors that were inspiring and helped steer me into advertising. Upon graduating my first job was roughly 2 hours to work and I’m sure I could have been paid more to say “welcome to Walmart” but it was a position in my desired career path so I stuck to it. After 2 years or so there I decided to look for something new and began taking on freelance work. One of the first jobs I took was for a boutique agency that was a team of 1 :). I knocked out the project and we began working together quite often. After about a month of freelance we decided to take the agency to the next level, we rented office space in Richmond Hill Georgia and began taking on any and all types of projects from our 1 room no windows office. Read More>>

Kristen Mercado

A local mom and yogi, I began teaching prenatal yoga in 2011. My own experience and those of my students confirmed that most parents (especially postpartum women) had a hard time prioritizing yoga or fitting it into their routines due to the cost and inconvenience of childcare. Plus there was a guilt factor of leaving young children for self-care. There were no studios with babysitting or a real focus on family. In 2014 I decided to trust my gut and took the leap- with parents on-site, my family-friendly studio would be exempt from DECAL and I opened Solstice, a yoga and barre studio, in Decatur April 1, 2015. Read More>>

Mandy Roberts

Finding yoga in 2004, I had no idea I was embarking on a life-long journey of personal growth and lighting the way for others.
In 2011 my marriage of 16 years ended and I thought my life was over. I was a stay at home mom, neighborhood organizer and school volunteer who ran the back end of my husband’s successful contracting business. Read More>>

Cheri Blaskovich

*I have been instructing yoga 18 years and practicing for over 20 years.

My training:

AAAI/ISMA
I have studied with Erich Schiffmann several times and completed his teacher intensive
My Yoga Alliance training was with Integrative Yoga Therapy/RYT 200 hours

Continued education with Shiva Rhea, Seane Corn, Saul David Raye, Paul Grilley, Nicki Doane, Eddie Modestini, Scott Blossom to mention a few. Read More>>

Eric Jennings

I began teaching Bikram Yoga in 2001. I currently hold certifications from The Yoga Physical Culture Academy (2013) and Ghosh Yoga College of India (2016). The yoga I teach has it’s roots in Yogapathy or yoga as medicine. I have studied with Shala Worsley, Muktamala Mitra, Jared McCann, Mary Jarvis, Tony Sanchez, Marlysa Sullivan, William Huffschmidt, Yoganand Michael Carrol and Bikram Choudhury. With a background in theatre and performance, one of my strengths as an instructor is an ability to offer clear and accessible instruction making all practitioners, no matter their level of experience, feel safe, supported and encouraged in their practice. Read More>>

Othene Munson

Originally, Othene is from South Africa and discovered yoga very early on in her teens through a life changing chance meeting with her guru, who has remained her teacher and inspiration these last 35 years! After many years of devoted practice and a move to Atlanta in the 1980’s, she began teaching yoga classes in her dining room. These classes were so well attended that The Center For Yoga was opened in 1997, and has been a sanctuary for our neighborhood ever since. Men and women are welcomed by great warmth and friendliness at the front door and offered yoga and meditation to small class sizes in pure classical teachings. Othene holds the highest yoga certification RYT E 500 with the yoga Alliance and is proficient in Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Anusara Yoga traditions. Read More>>

Michelle C.

Kissable Lips Cosmetics started off as an online store selling products such as eyebrow powders, eyeshadows, highlighters, and lipgloss, then later expanded the product brand to a full line of cosmetics including skin care, eyeshadows, lipgloss, foundations, highlighters, lipsticks, lashes, and more. Kissable Lips Cosmetics was founded in 2000, and put online in 2005, The first store was established in 2006 at Shannon Mall. From Shannon, we’ve moved to the Riverdale area, and now have found our home in Jonesboro, and have been in the Jonesboro location for 9 years. Read More>>

Denise Zannu

I began as a “kitchen chemist” making natural products like soaps and candles for friends and family. I’ve always believed in the benefits of aromatherapy and wanted to share them with my reluctant loved ones. I needed to find ways to get them to use essential oils. So I decided to start putting the oils into “everyday” products like soaps or base oils. Read More>>

Jay Davis

The GCA was founded in 1966 after several fatal whitewater accidents on the Chattooga River. Our early membership helped pioneer the development and dissemination of whitewater paddling techniques and negotiated access to many famous Southeastern rivers. We provide kayaking and canoeing instruction. We advocate for paddling access and river conservation along with many partner organizations. We are also a social club with multiple social and paddling events throughout the year. We advocate and are active in all types of human powered craft, though we focus on whitewater mostly. We are a nonprofit organization focused on fun, safety, instruction, conservation, and river access. Read More>>

Jennifer Wadsworth

Jennifer says founding Naturoil Skin Solutions has been an incredible voyage in serendipity. “In 2001, I had what I like to call a happy accident,” she shares. She was jogging in her neighborhood when a dog darted in her path causing her to tumble down a steep hill. The accident left her legs covered in ugly asphalt burns that dermatologists could not treat. Read More>>

Deanna Maslaman

I have been with The Green Tree Day Spa for a little over three years. The spa has been in operation since 1999 and has a great role in the community. Read More>>

Neda Honarvar

I took my first yoga class when I was 18 years old. I don’t remember much about the class but I remember vividly how I felt after: calm, centered, clear, and HIGH. I struggled with anxiety and depression as a teenager and practicing yoga helped me connect back in and feel more like myself again, like everything was so much more manageable. That feeling kept pulling me back to class and I practiced on and off for the next 7 years before deciding to take the next step. Read More>>

Scott Baxter

This whole journey began about 7 years ago; at the time I was a tennis coach at an exclusive country club. Members would regularly ask me if they had any suggestions for where their non-member friends who couldn’t afford the lavish country club life could take tennis lessons. The truth is there weren’t really any good options nearby so after getting approval from my boss, I started teaching some of these non-members on their local neighborhood courts on my days off. Read More>>

Noelle Larson

I managed a law firm in Buckhead up until the time I bought the salon. My title was Firm Administrator and my duties included everything from HR to marketing. I drove a total of 3 hours every day and loved my job but needed a change. I had business, leadership, and marketing experience and knew that I wanted to somehow apply those skills in a way that made women feel good/better about themselves. Read More>>

Cindy Bowden

The Clarkston Community Center is a gathering place for art, education, recreation and community building for long-time Georgians, newly arriving refugees, transplanted Americans, and established internationals. In 2015 we served over 40,000 people with a wide variety of programs, classes, sports, arts, recreation and special events. Read More>>

Andrew Schwartz

As a young person growing up in Annapolis, MD most Saturday mornings from the ages of 8-13 were spent happily drawing in a small studio in the basement below the local art supply store above. Looking back on those memories it’s not hard for me to know that the idea for Art & Beyond was hatched all those years ago. Fast forward to today, Art & Beyond was founded to provide the same energized, satisfying and safe studio environment for artists of all ages. Read More>>

James Adcock

I got started in this industry after meeting my wife who is Vietnamese. We started selling salon and beauty equipment after working in the nail industry for a few years. After 2 years of working with her family as President of Worldpedispa, LLC, I branched off on my own as an E-commerce based salon and spa equipment supplier to the high-end salon, spa, and resort markets. Read More>>