Tasia Erickson’s career has always been tied to creativity. From 1965 to 1985, she worked at Hanna-Barbera, starting as a cell painter and moving into special effects before becoming a production manager for Saturday morning cartoons. She also spent time in Hawaii as a watercolor portrait artist, painting for tourists at hotels. Later, she worked with Marvel Productions during the height of Saturday morning programming, before the industry shifted to reruns and the studio shut down.

After leaving the animation world, Tasia moved to Palmdale and became a nail technician, bringing her artistry to nail design for ten years. She also painted religious icons as meaningful gifts and created imaginative foam-core party environments for fun. Her professional life eventually led her into administration, serving as director of client services for a college of extended learning.

Julia Pinkham, a fifth-generation Californian born in Ventura, grew up in a home filled with art, music, and books. Encouraged by her mother, an art teacher, she began creating at an early age. A yearlong family trip through Mexico at age 10 exposed her to vibrant folk art traditions and confirmed her desire to pursue a life in art.

Julia studied art at Ventura and Oxnard Colleges before launching her career in 1979, hand-painting fabrics that she and her husband Tom turned into jackets and vests sold nationwide. After 14 years in production, she longed to focus on her own vision. She shifted to watercolor paintings of endangered species, reproduced as greeting cards by Paper Sharks, which later led to licensing opportunities in jewelry, textiles, and fabric design. By the mid-1990s, Julia committed fully to intuitive, expressive painting inspired by the natural world.