Multiple bone-rigged 2D sprites for one animation blend tree

I have two bone-rigged 2D sprites. One is front view and the other is side-view.

I'd like to use a blend tree to merge the states: front idle, front moving, side idle (right/left), side moving (right/left). However, since I've rigged the sprites separately, Unity seems to be treating them as separate entities. I created the front idle and side moving animations for now.

I've tried to group both sprites under an empty GameObject parent, and use an AnimationController on the parent. I am able to toggle the visibility of each sprite using keyframes on the "isActive" property. However, I cannot get the sprite animations to play when I use the Animation panel on the parent. Is there a way to swap between sprite objects in the blend tree? And a broader question: is it possible to play child pre-set animations in the animation of the parent? I've seen examples where the child is animated in the animation panel of the parent by adding properties. Ideally, I want to use anim files I previously created for the child.