From leathercraft to landmark restorations, Tanden Launder’s creative journey is as textured as his artworks. A self-taught, multi-medium artist based in Coeur d’Alene, Launder conjures layered visual biographies of the American West—where Buffalo Bill and Amelia Earhart rise from the pages of vintage books and into bold, contemporary compositions. Each piece beckons with “the draw,” that first glance pull, and rewards the curious with deeper stories: fragments of old newspapers, mixed media surprises, and echoes of lives once lived. At once rooted in history and alive with invention, Launder’s work revives Western icons through a lens that is both reverent and refreshingly original.
Check Out TANDEN's Works HERE
You describe your work as “visual biographies.” What first led you to that concept, and how has it evolved over time?
These "visual biographies" in essence are a form of storytelling, my medium lends itself to a lot of discovery and commands attention to be fully discovered. At the same time, you can appreciate it as a simple study of mood or feeling, leaving the viewer to choose how much they want to interact with the art. My hope is, like a good biography one would leave with a feeling they know a subject better or saw it in a new light.
Your use of layered materials, text, and imagery gives each piece so much depth. Can you walk us through how a work typically comes together for you?
I imagine my art process comes together similar to biographical writers, they are recreating a setting or idea as they are discovering it themselves, I surround myself with a nearly overwhelming amount of material and references in the studio. A work is tailored together based on a hundred cohesive sub stories sharing a common narrative, whether quotes, images ads, text or color it all has a deliberate purpose.
You’ve worked in everything from leather to restoration before focusing on fine art. How do those past creative outlets still show up in your current work?
Creation or recreation is in nearly every part of the work I set my hand to, the levels of detail are transcendent, in art, old buildings, leather goods, product design. It's all about detail and how I see capturing the correctness I want a project to be. Not every detail needs attention, often some are left alone to show process or how something once was or naturally is.
Literature and history clearly play a big role in your art. What kinds of stories or themes continue to inspire you?
I feel like I was the last analog kid born. I have an urge to retell stories I feel might be forgotten. Following the context on how visual our society has become. I'm pushing history back into it, starting with my personal love for the west and trying to tell visual stories of simpler times but making them contemporarily aesthetic.
What kind of reception do you expect from the SV community?
Idaho is a huge love of mine, it's been my home all my life. It has a rich history and heritage and I try to sneak some of that into most of the art pieces I create. Sun Valley is part of that history and has a nearly unparalleled setting for time and place.
You know when you're in Idaho.
To experience Tanden Launder’s art is to walk the line between past and present, where history isn’t just remembered—it’s reimagined. Each piece is a quiet excavation, inviting us to look closer, to linger, and to listen to the stories hidden beneath the surface. In a world that moves quickly, his work offers a moment of pause—a space where legends breathe again, where the dust of time is stirred by creativity, and where the spirit of the American West is not only preserved, but reborn.
Check Out All the Pieces by tanden HERE