Tim Foley was born in Flint, Michigan in 1962, spent most of his school years in the nearby town of Durand, Michigan, and attended college at the Kendall School of Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

His first job was working as a graphic designer/pasteup artist for a small family owned print shop in Flint in the summer of 1979, and spent most of the 80s working as a typesetter/graphic designer and eventually art director for a print shop with 3 locations in Grand Rapids. He set out on his own as a freelance illustrator in 1989, the same year his son Keenan was born.

Over the past quarter century, his clients have included national and international magazines, book publishers and advertising agencies, such as The Wall Street Journal, Cricket Magazine, Barrons, New York Newsday, LA Weekly, Penguin Books, Dover Publications, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Aside from drawing pictures, he is also a musician and songwriter, currently playing upright bass for The Jukejoint Handmedowns, sails on Lake Michigan in the summer months, and is an avid reader. He currently lives and works in Grand Rapids Michigan with his wife, Terri (a photographer and graphic artist), and his son, Keenan is grown and working as a jazz musician in Chicago.