POCATELLO — On the second floor of a nondescript building on North Ninth Avenue in Pocatello is a tiny art studio. Its walls are covered with colorful and cartoonish characters. There are two tables, around which are a handful of simple folding chairs.

When I walk into the That’s Clever studio, Tarl Lambson is bent over an iPad, working on a digital art piece. He hops up when he sees me and introduces himself. He’s friendly but a bit nervous.

Tarl doesn’t like talking about himself, but he’s easy to talk to. He’s soft-spoken and passionate about his work. There’s no bravado with him, only kindness. He’s open in talking about his, to use his word, “crippling” anxiety. He’s quick to praise his wife, Debbie, who frequently comes up in our discussion. Her nudging and cheerleading played a large role in getting his business off the ground.

When I’d reached out to him via email to see if he’d be interested in me writing a profile on him, he had responded: “I don't know that anything I do is especially news-worthy, but if you'd like to come out and take a look at our humble little studio I'd be more than happy to have you over and answer any question you might have.”

The studio is, indeed, humble, but it doesn’t need to be more than that. In that small space, Tarl is kindling the imaginations of the next generation, teaching children and teens his niche art form. He’s also letting himself live a dream he’d given up on years ago.

***

Tarl, a Pocatello native, comes from a family of artists. His dad and oldest brother, Hayden and Dallen Lambson, are successful wildlife painters, and Tarl says he’s loved drawing his whole life.

“The first inspiration I had was really my father — just being amazed at what he's able to produce,” he says. “We grew up loving wildlife, outdoors stuff … and to be able to have him work in a home and actually watch him and for him to even help us out with our school projects and stuff that was just so great for me to have that in my life.”

Tarl studied animation at Brigham Young University and dreamed of one day working at Disney. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out.

“Back in the days of me growing up it was the idea that you worked for a studio (and) that's kind of your career,” he says. “Those days were kind of gone anymore; it was contract work. And so it was you work with the studio until the project is over and then you find another job, and that seemed really difficult to deal with a family.”

Tarl gave up on a career in art and moved his family back to the Gate City where he became an officer with the Pocatello Police Department. He says it was “the funnest job I've ever had, but not a great fit for the family.”

I ask why it wasn’t a good fit and Tarl has a story at the ready, a memory clearly seared into his brain.

“I remember one day my daughter was telling me for one of her school projects they were supposed to write about a time that they were the most scared in their life,” he says. “I was thinking maybe a dream or some of the family activities they had where they almost drowned or fell off a cliff or something. She's like, ‘I was going to tell the story about that time you didn't come home from work and we thought you were dead.’”

He had been shocked.

“I had to stay out later because of what we thought was a homicide at the time,” Tarl says about that night on the job. “It ended up being a suicide but she had thought Dad wasn't ever coming home again. And I did not know that for quite a while until she brought that to my attention. Stuff like that made me reconsider (my career).”

After leaving the police force, he worked security at the FBI for a while and then did IT work at Idaho National Laboratory. He says he loved the latter job, but “crippling anxiety came to kick my butt.”

He left INL and came back to the FBI to work as an analyst.

Then his wife, Debbie, was diagnosed with breast cancer, and he had to quit that job, too, because he couldn’t give it the time it needed.

It’s been a couple years now since Debbie’s diagnosis, and she’s in remission.

“Man, she's the toughest woman I know, and amazingly, she is fighting it very, very well — as much as I would expect anybody to,” Tarl says. “She's incredible. Fortunately, because of her and even with all that she's doing she has let me and completely supported me in trying to do this.”

He says he’d had the chance to teach at local schools a few times, and he really loved it, so he decided to try teaching on his own.

He started out in a studio with another local artist, Emily Pugmire. She and her husband own High Desert Physical Therapy in Chubbuck, and they originally had space set aside in the clinic for an art gallery. Debbie currently works in marketing at the company.

“Their business has taken off and done fantastic work and they kind of ran her studio out because they needed more space and room, and so that left me trying to figure out what to do on my own,” Tarl says. “So I ended up finding a nice little affordable spot — and I do mean little humble beginnings. It's tiny. I can fit 10 students in here, but it's a little cramped at that point. I kinda like it just because my students get some good quality time for each individual. I'm not feeling like I'm rushing through lesson stuff.”

It’s been about a year since he moved into the building at 215 N. Ninth Ave. He says business is slow, but he’s happy.

“On average it's usually about four (kids per class). I have a couple of classes where there's only two,” he says. “I think the most I have gotten in a class since I've been here has been like eight or nine. And so it's meager beginnings. But I still enjoy it. I still love it. And the kids that come, I think they enjoy it; they seem to.”

***

Only a couple minutes after leaving Tarl’s studio, I get a phone call. “Hey, this is Tarl. Are you free for lunch?”

He’d been talking to his wife and she told him he’d missed a few topics. I got the sense that she was exhibiting the exasperated patience of someone who wants the world to know how awesome their often self-effacing spouse is.

Tarl and Debbie met in high school during a week-long youth camp at Ricks College (now Brigham Young University-Idaho) in Rexburg. She lived in Utah and he would visit her every chance he had during high school. They’ve now been married for 21 years and have raised three children together.

I meet them at The Works in Chubbuck, at the beginning of the lunch rush. The two have an easy chemistry, and it’s obvious they adore each other.

Our chat starts off with Debbie mentioning that Tarl had said he talked about his dad during our interview. “I was like, ‘No! Talk about you!’” Debbie says.

It feels like an old argument, and it tracks with something Tarl had told me earlier, hinting at a tendency to compare himself to other artists:

“I look at so many different artists and I'm like, ‘Holy cow, that's incredible what they do. I wish I could be more like that. I'm not as good as that,’” he had said. “When really what I need to see is I am so different in what I do than what they do and just recognize it as a great ability they have — they’re using different mediums or have a very different style — and to just appreciate that theirs is different, and that it's not necessarily worse than them. Just different.”

Debbie talks about some of the work Tarl has done, including several posters hanging up at City Hall that he did for free when he worked in the police department.

“I just enjoyed working there and enjoyed the guys and wanted to get them to be a part of something to make the walls look a little nicer,” Tarl says.

When Tarl and I had been talking at his office, I had a distinct thought: “I’d really like to meet his wife.” She seemed like the type of person who’d work behind the scenes doing just about anything to help her loved ones succeed. Meeting her in person cemented that idea.

“Debbie is my biggest fan,” Tarl says.

“Absolutely,” Debbie says when I ask if she’s excited for Tarl to have his own studio now. “Yeah, it's been pretty fun to watch that grow.”

***

Tarl’s art style is definitely unique.

“On the spectrum, I've got people saying, ‘You're an odd duck. The stuff you come up with is strange.’ And I accept that. … It's weird, it's strange, but I'm okay with that,” he says. “My dad's comments on Facebook are great. It's usually like, ‘I don't get it.’ He says it with the greatest of intent, but he truly doesn't get it. I understand. And I have others that are like, ‘You are so creative.’”

Currently, Tarl offers classes in drawing, comic booking and character design. In-person group classes are for kids in two age groups — 8 to 12 and 13 to 17 — and are $120 for six weekly classes. He also provides one-on-one classes to any age group, including adults, both online and in-person. Those are $180 for six classes. You can register for classes online at www.whythatsclever.com.

He’s planning on offering more intensive camps during the summer months, with classes like stop-motion animation and film.

“That's one thing it seems like kids do have now is phones, (so I want to) teach them how to use their cameras to actually make some fun video stuff instead of just selfies and TikToks,” he says.

Tarl says his anxiety is kept at bay when he’s working with kids.

“Interestingly enough, with the kids, I really don't deal with that. I would say that they are less judgmental but the reality is, they're very judgmental,” he says with a laugh. “And so it's not that but I just really enjoy teaching them. They make the classroom fun.”

That’s Clever has gotten some rave reviews, both online and in person.

“I have a couple that have come back and told me, ‘Man, you have just sparked something in my child that now they love doing this,’ and I love hearing things like that,” Tarl says.

The glowing Google reviews — all five stars — it turns out, are also likely thanks to Debbie working behind the scenes.

“She has actually gone out to like, I swear, every client that she can find between emails that they have sent me and stuff, or I also do commission work and so a lot of those are from people that I've done commissioned work for, and said, ‘Hey, if you've liked what he's done, would you mind reviewing it?’ because she's big about people getting reviews on their sites,” Tarl says.

The reviews speak to Tarl’s creativity, but also to his passion for teaching. Like this one:

“Tarl is talented in art, yes, that goes without saying. However, not all artists are teachers and can connect with students and a class. Tarl is skilled in that area as well. My son loved his classes because Tarl showed interest in him as a person as well as the art they were making in class. I highly recommend Tarl's classes for anyone looking to improve their skills at any level.”

Tarl says part of the reason why he wanted to open his studio is because there wasn’t anything like it when he was growing up in Pocatello.

“This is one of those things, I guess, of me trying to live through somebody else's childhood of having a better chance for these kinds of fun opportunities,” he says.

Seeing the kids nurture their creative sides has been rewarding for him as well.

“I see their work and I'm just like, holy cow. Some of these kids, they're going to be going places,” he says.

At the end of our interview together, Tarl reiterates just how incredible his wife is.

“If there's one thing that I could get out is just how amazing my wife and my family have been and supportive of this,” he says. “Especially after all that she has gone through. … I can't imagine a more amazing woman that has been supportive through taking care of three wonderful kids and me on top of that.”

“I feel like I've been pretty darn blessed.”

***

I’d found out about Tarl thanks to a news tip that showed up in my email one day, from someone I assumed was a parent of a kid who took his art classes. It said:

“That's Clever is a small business open in Pocatello teaching art classes. The teacher, Tarl, is simply amazing. He teaches in a fun way, engages all his learners and shares his love of art. He studied animation in college and is able to share not only his drawing skills but animation and digital art as well. Would love to see an article on this awesome local business! (the Google reviews too, tell an awesome story).”

I had told Tarl in my original email that “one of your customers reached out to us.” At some point early in the interview (I didn’t know his last name or his wife’s name at this point), he says, “I am probably the world's worst business person. I can't sell myself to save my life or my business, so thank you for that, whoever it was.”

I say, “Her name was Debbie.”

“Debbie,” he repeats. “Did she give you a last name?”

I pause for a second. “Lambson?”

His jaw drops and he lets out a joy-filled chuckle. “That would be my wife!” Then, “Bless her heart. I’ll have to take her out to lunch today.”