The Art Beat: Tyler Kauffman
Explore the world of Harrisonburg artist Tyler Kauffman in The Art Beat.
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Tyler Kauffman is a Harrisonburg-based mural artist whose work brings color and movement to familiar walls around the city. With a background in fine arts and years of hands-on experience outside the studio, his murals reflect both technical skill and emotional depth. Tyler’s process blends planning and intuition, using digital tools and brushwork to create site-specific designs that connect with their surroundings and invite people to pause and feel something real.
For mural artist Tyler Kauffman, creating has always come naturally. As a kid, he was the type who couldn’t sit still without building or making something. Whether it was painting, sketching, or working with his hands, he loved turning ideas into something real. That same curiosity led him to study fine arts with a focus on painting in college. After graduation, life shifted for a while, and art had to take a back seat. Years later, when he picked up a paintbrush again, he felt something spark awake. It reminded him exactly why he started in the first place.
That single step back into painting changed the course of everything. What began as a small, personal project quickly grew into something bigger. When a friend asked if he’d ever painted a mural, Tyler decided to give it a shot, and that one opportunity opened the door to a new kind of art. Since then, he’s filled walls across Downtown Harrisonburg with color and movement, turning blank spaces into landmarks that people recognize and remember.
Tyler’s murals are a balance of planning and emotion. His fine art work is expressive and often leans toward raw feeling, while murals require a mix of problem-solving and collaboration. He designs each piece to fit its space and audience, often blending the client’s vision with his own sense of rhythm and texture. His goal is to make something that feels alive, something that carries a sense of motion even when the paint is dry.
When it comes to his process, Tyler works through plenty of trial and error. He might sketch several versions before finding the one that clicks. Using digital tools like an iPad or Photoshop helps him experiment with layouts, colors, and scale before ever picking up a brush. Once the design is ready, the wall itself becomes part of the process. Depending on the surface, he might use a projector, a traditional grid, or what he calls a “doodle grid,” made of quick spray-painted shapes that guide placement. It’s part planning, part instinct.
For Tyler, murals are more than just decoration. They bring art out of galleries and into the community, making it something everyone can experience. He doesn’t want people to feel a certain way; he just wants them to stop, notice, and feel something. Whether it’s curiosity, joy, or nostalgia, that moment of connection is what matters most. His work reminds us that public art isn’t just about color on a wall. It’s about giving people a reason to pause and look a little closer at the world around them.
