LETTER #15

Tim Klein, Puzzle Montage Artist & Maker of the Yarn Car

Tim Klein fell into my life through community. He struck me as a shy, business-type guy—maybe a computer programmer or engineer. I wasn't far off; he'd had a previous life as a computer scientist and software engineer. Kinda nerdy, but nerds are my jam, so that’s perfect. He's a tall, soft-spoken, cuddly teddy bear of a man—a giant compared to my 4'11" frame. As I got to know him better and he became part of my closer circle, I learned once again that you can't judge a book by its cover…completely.

Tim is an artist extraordinaire! He creates these surreal Puzzle Montages by combining two or more puzzles with the same die-cut pattern into otherworldly designs. Since this week’s Analog Letter goes out to Tim, I decided I’d try my hand at a montage. I found a tiger puzzle and a waterfall puzzle and put them together. I love puzzling. I have to tell you this was both challenging and super fun to do!

Here’s an example of Tim’s mastery of this art:

This one is called Khan.

From his website: Constructed from the pieces of three puzzles published in the 1990s. One puzzle showed a cat, and a second puzzle showed a statue of a peacock in a temple in India. The third puzzle showed an autostereogram image of the type that was briefly a pop culture phenomenon in the early '90s.

Sorry, this one has been sold. But, you can check out the rest of his work on here.

Tim is also the creator of the Yarn Car. “A 1967 Imperial Crown luxury car covered with 5 miles of soft acrylic yarn and 2000 black river rocks”. It was recently featured at the Seattle Art Car Blow Out. Click the link above if you’re curious about what a Yarn Car looks like! Trust me, you’ll be amazed.

Tim also provides support for the touch positive group that my friend Shanya Luther and I founded in 2023. Hive Love creates gatherings where people can learn and practice authentic connection, affection, and play in healthy, caring ways. Tim exemplifies the ethos of our group and has been a huge support for our events!

I love it when people fall into your life organically and connections slowly unfold—the more you get to know that human, the more you realize they're part of your world. Tim is most certainly that for me.

This letter is part of a weekly series called Analog Connections. Each week I create and handwrite a letter to someone that is on my mind and post it here. I hope you enjoy getting to know some of the amazing humans in my life!