TINKER

Leeanna Gantt (photo above) is a native Angelino. This fact alone is enough to qualify her as a sideshow freak, but there is more. She is also a graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Thousands of dollars and 6 hours of sleep later, she was turned loose on the field of advertising. After 10 years of winning awards and selling people things they probably could’ve lived without she truly achieved greatness with the birth of her daughter, Riley. After 5 years of eating on the floor, while various of Riley’s art projects dried on the dining room table, she figured there had to be a better way. Thousands of dollars and 6 hours of sleep later, Tinker was born.

Brad Gantt is Leeanna’s husband. And Riley’s father. Oh, and a Creative Director at a Santa Monica advertising agency. He’s that too. Born in Iowa, raised in Arizona, grew-up in Los Angeles. Brad has been working in the design and advertising fields for more than 12 years. Prior to that he was, well… younger. He brings with him a diverse background in design, photography, film, music, architecture, parenting, rock-climbing, cycling, juggling and other irrelevant (but so very interesting) subjects. Brad co-developed the idea for Tinker (though it was really his wife’s idea) and continues to nurture its growth from a community studio to an unstoppable force for good in the Universe.

Holly is from Massachusetts and misses the weather there. She has an MFA in Theater from CalArts. She was a preschool teacher for 6 years before coming to Tinker, and she also taught theater classes to kids around Los Angeles. Before she was a mom, she wrote and performed her own plays, which sometimes bordered on subversive, feminist, and political–but they were also really funny. Holly was taught to knit by her grandmother Yvonne, to sew and cross-stitch by her mom Barbara, and to survive on a few hours of sleep by her children Milo and Selkie. She lives in Sherman Oaks with her husband Alex and her kids and a lot of animals. Ask Holly about ice cream, yarn, Converse sneakers and thrift stores.

Jules received her MFA in 2004. After that she hightailed it to LA to become a famous artist and work at Tinker. Her current project, The Girl Who Knew too Much, is a group of large format photographs of girls, of course, set in big oval frames. They are bright and colorful and would look great in your living room! When she’s not working away on her art (or at Tinker), she can be found listening to forgotten female folk singers, watching drive-in movies from the ‘70’s or eating vegan pizza.

Check out all the Eco Art projects from Tinker

• Make a Spooky-Crunchy-Scary Pillow
• Tinker Gets Eco-Art Creative with Tastybaby
• Life's A Beach: Eco Art
• Eco Art: Gifts for Dad
• Independence-Themed Eco Art