Paul H. Tardie is a visual artist who has drawn inspiration from nature, both human and non-human. As a teenager in California and later in Tennessee, Tardie gravitated to drawing and painting with little formal training outside of public school. In 2005, the artist fled Tennessee for the warmer climes of Louisiana and then Texas. Seasonal work in Montana introduced the artist to the beauty of landscapes which prominently became the subject of paintings from 2008 onward. Returning to the city every autumn would inspire works that lampooned culture as Austin changed over time and living as a street artist selling stenciled t-shirts was no longer sustainable. In 2015, Tardie took printmaking courses at Austin Community College and found a knack for intaglio, block print, and lithography. Themes following this phase began to oscillate regularly between critique, humor, biophilia, and wildland-urban interface. Tardie’s education as a biology student has influenced their focus on organisms, environmentalism, and social realism.
In 2022, Tardie anonymously received the Best of Austin: Arts and Entertainment Wildcard award for the “You’re My Butthole” amendment to the “You’re My Better Half” mural. Other mural work of theirs in Austin includes the East Side Pies “Pizza Wizard”, collaboration at the Graffiti Park at Castle Hill, and various pieces of street art. In 2018, Tardie self-published “Inside: Dissecting a County Jail” as well as collaborated on “Books Through Bars: Stories From the Prison Books Movement” published in 2024.
