By Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer | Photos by Matt Titone/Indoek/Italic Studio
Artist, photographer, designer, surfer: Matt Titone contains multitudes. From a young age, the East Coast native loved art and the aquatic environment, and has incorporated both into his life...
By Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer | Photos by Viktor Budnik
The very things that make up modern-day living — roads, buildings, tunnels, dams, bridges, water systems, etc. — exist thanks to the efforts and expertise of civil engineers. And since...
By Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer | Photos by Viktor Budnik
There is nothing more exciting, rewarding…and potentially emotional…than shopping for the perfect gown in which to walk down the aisle. Tracey Theys McHale, owner of Bella Mucci’s Bridal Couture in...
By Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer | Photos by Viktor Budnik
The moment you walk into the Camarillo home of Catalina Wise, you know this is a residence belonging to an artist. Colorful paintings hang on luminous white walls, intriguing pottery...
Alan Salazar discusses his Native ancestry, discovering lost knowledge and teaching tomol craftsmanship to a new generation of Chumash.
By Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer
For 25 years, Alan Salazar — storyteller, Native educator and tribal elder in the Fernandeño Tataviam Band...
By Alex Wilson
Sarah Oberman isn’t exaggerating when she says she was born to be in the aviation business.
Her first official job when she was just 12 years old was washing airplanes at Channel Islands Aviation, a business at Camarillo...
Talking art, Italy, the magic of creation and “stretching the creative cord” with bead artist Mara Colecchia.
By Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer | Photos by Viktor Budnik
From a young age, Mara Colecchia was steeped in art. She grew up in...
By Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer | Photos by Viktor Budnik
With Feb. 14 just days away, chocolates, wine and flowers will be on every sweetheart’s mind. And when you want to “make hearts smile,” Sweet Peas on Johnson Drive in...
Donna Granata on the power of creativity and documenting an artistic legacy.
By Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer
Arts archive and library Focus on the Masters has been the steward for Ventura County’s artistic legacy since its founding in 1994. Through extensive...
By Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer
In the hillsides behind Ventura’s City Hall are several acres of natural paradise. A place where picturesque trails wind through a landscape filled with thousands of plants and stonework elements, gently rising for nearly a...
