An acclaimed cut-stone picture artist, Tim Urban was well aware of the daunting, even torturous, task of making something out of nothing but the scraps of an intriguing idea when he decided to write a novel. And so did he discover within the first few lines that writing is hard and humbling. Overcoming the fear of not being good enough is ingrained in the process. You’re your own worst critic. And the frustration of feeling your best efforts don’t fully capture the image in your head or reveal the warring emotions driving your characters’ words and actions—no matter how many times you rewrite a scene—is constant. But, as God mercifully blessed Tim Urban with the steely patience and the hard-core do-it-again-and-again demeanor to survive those doubt-heavy days when the progress is more backward than forward, writing Under God’s Rock was the perfect new creative challenge for the first-time author.

Raised in the mineral-rich mountains of northern New Jersey, Tim earned an architecture degree from the University of Maryland in 1983, married Cindy—the beautiful little blond that sat next to him in first-year design studio—the following year, honeymooned in the artist’s haven of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and loved it so much that they stayed and built a life there. They have three amazing children: Blaise, Reina, and Colton. 

Playing with rocks was what Tim was good at. And during his 30-year career as the owner of a high-end landscape company he earned a reputation for putting behemoth boulders together in a way that Santa Fe had not seen before. Characterized by his incredibly natural boulder formations and the contrasting detail of his finer cut-stone elements, his landscapes were exceedingly popular on local garden tours—particularly his signature inlay work: birds, snakes, geckos, and flowers incorporated into many of his patios, walls, walkways, and fountains.

So was born the “Grindstone Cowboy.” Employing only a basic hand-held grinder mounted with a dry-diamond wheel spinning at 20,000 rpms, Tim honed his cutting skills on simpler folk art images before moving on to furniture and furnishing pieces featuring inlays of increasingly difficult detail. Creating timeless western scenes, his work is often described as playful and serene—spiritual, even. Many of his fine-art pieces have been featured in elite national shows such as the Western Design Conference, the NYC Contemporary Art Fair, and at the prestigious Trailside Galleries in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. His art was also exhibited in the popular MADE section of the Architectural Digest Home Show (NYC), and a collection of his work was selected by an international jury to represent the entire American West at the exclusive Biennale exhibit in Venice, Italy. Tim returned to his folk art roots with a move to Amelia Island, Florida in 2017, with his current Beach Feet pieces (BeachFeetco.com) featuring fun coastal images. 

Yes, writing is hard—sometimes seemingly impossible. But, in the end, Tim gets the same satisfaction out of breathing life into stories that portray humanity at both its beautiful best and brutal worst as when he’s crafting timeless, emotion-stirring images out of stone. With the publication of Under God’s Rock, Tim is happy to finally send these characters born in his brain so many years ago out into the world to tell their tragic, yet spiritually uplifting story. Because we’ve all been under God’s rock at one time or another. And it takes more than hope to find your way out.