Tanner Mardis

Coffee

Ahh, that smooth porcelain filled with that happy beverage. The fuel of the creative mind, and a piece of art all in itself. I used to not like the stuff, I loved the smell but couldn’t stand the taste. Slowly but surely it started to weasel its way across my pallet and into my heart (or rather my stomach). Now i’m known as a gourmand of coffee and connoisseur of espressos. 

I was just pondering how crazy it was that not too long ago none of this existed. There wasn’t a coffee shop on every corner or people who visited them. Now it seems as if there isn’t a social chat that isn’t centered around a cup of coffee in a beautiful little shop. I just love the culture surrounding it and the pursuit of a good cup, the environment of the shops, and the art of coffee making. There’s nothing like having a well made coffee or expresso some chocolate and an design project in front of me. Oh the fuel on the fire of a creative mind, such goodness. If ever you find yourself in a creative rut, might I suggest a hot mocha and some deep instrumental music.

Handmade Star Wars Toms

I had the awesome privilege to work on some custom Toms for a friend of mine’s birthday. Some, Super Mega Star Wars Toms… This is the first time I’ve done art on shoes. I was a bit nervous how they’d turn out, but I’d have to say the results were pretty awesome!

Artist credit: Tommy Gowin & Tanner Mardis.

Failure

“Fear of failure is a big thing. I would say that’s probably the top thing. Seeing failure like it’s the end. But really, success is just ridden with failure; it takes tons of failure to get to success.

People who are successful treat failure as course correction. They’re looking for the failures. They’re dissecting the failures. They’re finding out why something went wrong so they can prevent it in the future and make things go right.

It’s a mindset shift toward treating failure as an enabler.”

- Sean McCabe | seanwes.com

Unlock your creative freedom

I recently had the pleasure of co-writing an article about creativity with the awesome Dina Rodriguez. Check it out on her blog The Letter Shoppe.

Windows of the Soul

This book was a pivotal inspiration point in my life. As I was just remembering how much it has impacted me, I figured I would share the opening piece. I hope it brings you life like it did me.

- - -

God stretched out the heavens, stippling the night with impressionistic stars. He said the sun to the rhythm of the day, the moon to the rhythm of the month, the seasons to the rhythm of the year. He blew wind to through weedy marshes and beat drums of distant thunder. He formed a likeness of himself from a lump of clay into it breathed life. He crafted a counterpart to complete the likeness, joining the two halves and placing them center stage in His creation where there was a temptation and a fall, a great loss and a great hiding. God searched for the hiding couple, reaching to pick them up, dust them off, draw them near. Though They hardly knew it at the time. After then, He searched for their children and their children’s children. And afterward wrote stories of His search.

In doing all this, God gave us art, music, sculpture, drama, and literature. He gave them as footpaths to lead us out of our hiding places and as signposts to lead us along in our search for what was lost.

Shaped from something of earth and something of heaven, we were torn between two worlds. A part of us wanted to hide. A part of us wanted to search. With half remembered words still legible in our hearts and faintly sketched images still visible in our souls, some of us stepped out of hiding and started our search.

Though we hardly knew where to look. We painted to see if what was lost was in the picture. We composed to hear if what was lost was in the music. We sculpted to find if what was lost was in was in the stone. We wrote to discover if what was lost was in the story. Through art and music and stories we searched for what was missing from our lives.

Though at times we hardly knew it.
Though at times we could hardly keep from knowing it.
The German poet Rilke tells of one of those times in a fable where the sculpting hands of  Michelangelo “tore at the stone as at a grave, in which a faint dying voice is flickering. ‘Michelangelo, cried God in dread, who is in the stone?’ Michelangelo listened; his hands were trembling. Then he answered in a muffled voice: 'Thou, my God, who else? But I cannot reach Thee.'”

We reach for God in many ways. Through our sculptures and our scriptures. Through our pictures and our prayers. Through our writing and our worship. And through them He reaches for us. His search begins with something said. Ours begins with something heard. His begins with something shown. Ours, with something seen. Our search from God and His search for us meet at windows in our everyday experience. These are the windows of the soul…

… We must be aware, at all times and in all places, because windows are everywhere, and at any time we may find one. Or one may find us. Though we will hardly know it … unless we are searching for Him who for so long has been searching for us. 

The Make Shirt

There’s nothing like seeing a dream come true, and every dream has a story. It has been amazing seeing the story of the Make shirt unfold. It has brought such life to the creative in me, to dream this dream and see it become a reality. To breath life into the dust of our dreams, that is the essence of creativity and being creative. "Let us ever onward, reach for our dreams, and make that which has yet to be made.“