
Tomasula has a BFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an MFA from Northwestern. She has been exhibiting her work for 30 years. Her work often features flowers but these two pieces are more bird-oriented.
The work is elegant and fantastical; the images inhabit some intricate mythical world. Reach is oil on panel while I Can Feel It is oil on canvas.
Heffernan's paintings have an almost Baroque feel--except not really. You want to compare them to various centuries old styles because they purposefully hint at these styles. There is also something of magical realism in the work but, also, not really. She has a BFA in painting and printmaking from the University of California at Santa Cruz and an MFA in painting from the Yale School of Art.
You can find out more (and see a large collection of her work) at www.julieheffernan.net.