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Before the job titles,
there was making things.

I'm a practicing visual artist — painter, photographer, illustrator, muralist. The creative practice and the professional work inform each other constantly, even when they don't look related. Everything here is made by hand. No generative AI was used in any of it.

Tim Mehlhorn

Publication · Self-published
FOCUS Coloring Book

A self-published coloring book of hand-drawn nature illustrations, available on Amazon. Every design was drawn by hand — from a simple butterfly to a complex bonsai tree — with difficulty varying to suit different moods and patience levels.

The concept: adult coloring as a genuine focus practice, not just decoration.

View on Amazon ↗
FOCUS Coloring Book flat lay showing the cover and three open spreads with hand-drawn nature illustrations including a bird, butterfly, and orchid
Interior spread from The Story of the Frog and the Giraffe — left page shows a bright green frog on a rock surrounded by four colored torches, right page shows a giraffe holding a golden basket

Illustration · 2020
The Story of the Frog & the Giraffe

Illustrated F&G's first-ever children's book, created for the company's Bring Your Child to Work Day. The book tells the story of two animals who partner to help their kingdom — giving parents a gentle, age-appropriate way to explain what their company does and why it matters.

Where F stood for Frog and G stood for Giraffe.

CADE Award · April 2020

Motion · 2023
The Greatest Give

Animated graphics for F&G's 2023 United Way campaign, built on a carnival theme: a waving pennant and fireworks over the campaign badge, a rollercoaster with cars riding the track, and a turning Ferris wheel. Each one is hand-built SVG, animated with CSS and SVG motion paths rather than video, so they stay sharp at any size and weigh a fraction of a GIF.

NOVA Award · 2nd Place, Non-Profit · 2023
The Greatest Give, United Way 2023: a circus-tent badge with an F&G pennant, sunburst rays behind it, and a purple ribbon banner. A purple rollercoaster track with a loop on orange supports, cars riding along it. A Ferris wheel in orange, purple, and green, its spokes and cabins turning.

Painting · 2017
Expression Paintings

A collection of 32 abstract paintings exploring how color, texture, and composition on a predominantly black ground can evoke specific emotional states. Each painting is a controlled experiment: what happens when you put these two colors against this texture, at this scale?

Solo exhibition — Monk's Kaffee and Pub, Dubuque, Iowa · February 2017

See the full series
  • Abstract painting, thick palette-knife strokes on a dark ground: a diagonal sweep of cobalt blue and dusty mauve.
  • Abstract painting, thick palette-knife strokes on a dark ground: a glowing mass of golden yellow.
  • Abstract painting, thick palette-knife strokes on a dark ground: a diagonal band of pink and coral fading into red.
  • Abstract painting, thick palette-knife strokes on a dark ground: burnt orange and red, like embers.
  • Abstract painting, thick palette-knife strokes on a dark ground: a drift of white and pale gray.
  • Abstract painting, thick palette-knife strokes on a dark ground: interlocking strokes of sky blue and orange.
  • Abstract painting, thick palette-knife strokes on a dark ground: violet and bright green crossing a pale center.
  • Abstract painting, thick palette-knife strokes on a dark ground: cascading blues and white, like falling water.
Portrait Projections: black-and-white portrait of a woman with a honeycomb pattern of light projected across her face. Portrait Projections: a woman in profile, her face and hair covered in scattered flecks of projected light. Portrait Projections: a woman looking back over her bare shoulder through a projected lace pattern. Portrait Projections: a woman in glasses with a vertical strip of projected light dividing her face. Portrait Projections: a woman's face half in shadow, the lit side dotted with projected water droplets. Portrait Projections: a woman facing the camera, her face covered in a projected pattern of leaf shapes. Portrait Projections: a woman gazing upward with lines of sheet music projected across her face. Portrait Projections: a woman facing the camera through a projected grid of soft squares.

Photography · 2014–2015
Portrait Projections

A photography series investigating how we read portraits when the subject is partially obscured or transformed. Models are lit against pure black backgrounds with patterned light projected onto their faces — removing environmental context and isolating the relationship between pattern, texture, and recognition.

  • Harry Nohr Gallery, UW–Platteville · 2014 & 2015
  • Blurring the Edges — Dubuque Area Arts Collective · 2015
  • Rendezvous Coffee & Tea, Dubuque · 2015
Finalist — Photographer's Forum Magazine, Best of College Photography 2014
See the full series
A woman with red pin-curled hair and tattooed arms behind the wheel of a vintage car, in soft, warm light.

Photography
Portraiture

Alongside the projection series, I shot styled portraits on location. This one was among the winning photographs in Phlearn's portrait contest.

Winner — Phlearn Portrait Contest

Type design
Slashfold

A display typeface inspired by the strips of paper used to fold lucky stars. Every letter is built from the same angled, folded strokes. It's free to use and available to download on DaFont.

Download on DaFont ↗ See it on Behance ↗
The Slashfold alphabet, A to Z, in two sizes: angular capitals cut by diagonal folds, light gray on charcoal.
Platteville Over Time — a 4 by 16 foot ceramic tile mural showing the University of Wisconsin–Platteville's history from founding to future, with the text Remember the Past, Celebrate the Present, Pioneer the Future

Public Art · 2015
Platteville Over Time

A 4×16-foot ceramic tile mural commissioned as part of the University of Wisconsin–Platteville sesquicentennial celebration. The design draws from historic etchings and concept drawings of past and future campus buildings — a visual argument about the relationship between institutional memory and forward motion.

The mural is a mosaic of nearly 400 individually sized subway tiles, each with a distinct image fused via thermal toner transfer. No two tiles are the same.

  • Permanent installation — Markee Pioneer Student Center, UW–Platteville
  • Preview exhibition — Harry Nohr Gallery · 2015

Community
Making things with others

Gallery M115

While studying at UW–Platteville, I helped manage Gallery M115 — a student-owned and -operated art gallery in downtown Platteville featuring work by UW–P students and regional artists. In addition to showing my own work, I maintained the gallery's website and documented the exhibitions.

Walk MS — Event Photographer

Volunteered as official event photographer for Walk MS — the National MS Society's largest annual gathering — across four years and two cities: Platteville (2012–14) and Dubuque (2015).

PechaKucha Dubuque

Designed event posters for seven volumes (Vol. 2, 6, 10–14) and served as event photographer. PechaKucha's 20×20 format — 20 slides, 20 seconds each — has a particular resonance for someone who thinks about visual communication for a living.

Additional

  • Boys & Girls Club of Central Iowa — volunteer photographer, Talent Show (Dec 2023)
  • Hurricane Maria Benefit for Puerto Rico — poster design (2017)
  • Mines of Spain Trail Run — event photographer (2017)