Oats originated during the summer of 2003 and what started out as simple self portraits has turned into trading card frenzy! Actually, many people believe Kevin Hanna's requests of family members to draw a butterfly for her journal was the inspiration behind it all.
Kevin's passion and talent for art is obvious, but her greatest gift may be her infectious art spirit that transcends upon you when she is around. She just makes you want to draw. Shortly before the evolution of OATS, Kevin had been keeping a journal that consisted of a daily list of three things she was thankful for that day and a drawing. On birthdays and family gatherings Kevin would often ask others to contribute a drawing for that day. Birthday request were the most common and Kevin would ask for portraits of the birthday boy or girl. There was one request, however, that seemed to generate a lot of participation and creativity - a butterfly.
Not long after the series of butterflies, Kevin, her sister Julie, nieces Faith and Hannah were sitting around a table waiting for everyone else to come over and drawing to pass the time. Kevin came up with the idea that each person should draw a picture of what they think they look like and a separate picture of what they wished they looked like. They didn't have a lot of paper so they decided to cut 4x6 index cards in half and use 3x4 cards for the self portraits. As they began to look around at the self portraits they realized they liked each others better than their own and began to trade their own portrait for another person's portrait and so on - thus considered the start of the Original Art Trading Society.
Several days later, Julie called Kevin and told her how Faith, Hannah and now Kevin's nephew Sam had been constantly drawing and trading since the first day and that they couldn't wait to trade with Kevin again. Kevin had her daughter Grace and David, Grace's boyfriend, draw some cards too so she would have more to trade and off she went to Julie's house for another trading session.
Not long after, many of the Hanna clan gathered for the annual summer camping trip at Sycamore Canyon in Malibu. Julie and Kevin shared the idea with rest of the group and the frenzy began. Everyone began to draw on the cut index cards and trade to build their own personal collections. Since the camping trip it is a very rare occasion when the Hannas get together and a trade is not made.
All trading cards are designated with a symbol representing their link to the original Hanna family:
Represents Blood related Hanna membership
Represents Hanna in-law membership
Represents extended family membership
Represents special-friend membership
Represents all other membership
