Owner/artist Esa Everroad carefully selects each piece for display in the Purple Pelican. She has spent virtually all her adult life practicing a variety of art forms. She began selling her drawings to classmates in grade school for candy money. She is largely self-taught and because of that, her work is always unique and unaffected. Her first job was as a framer for a gallery in the Gaslight Square District of St. Louis, in 1969. She has been a fashion model, singer, radio announcer, motivational speaker, interior decorator, graphic and web designer, fabric artist, seamstress, counselor, cook and life coach.

For many years, Esa was a gospel singer/songwriter with 13 music albums to her credit, performing for audiences numbering over a quarter of a million people in more than 250 churches in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. She is a published poet and her award-winning piece titled Purple Bearded Pelican inspired the name of her gallery. She and Terry, her husband of 33 years, moved to Spooner in 2005 having lived for many years in artistic hot spots St. Augustine, Florida, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Their daughter Shannon, with her husband Bob, owns Sathers Jewelry, the second oldest continuously operating business in Spooner (since 1910) right across the street.