Llyn Foulkes wa born in 1934 in Yakima, Washington.  He attended the University of Washington and Central Washington College in 1953-54.  Between 1954 and '56 he served in the US Army in Germany.  In 1956 attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He works in assemblage, and is a painter and conceptualist, whose work has characteristics of Pop Art with repeated monochrome images of eroded rocks, to which he applies labels as if they might be postcards. His assemblages incorpora

He played drums with City Lights from 1965 to 1971, and formed his own band, The Rubber Band, in 1973, which stayed together until 1977. By 1979, Foulkes had returned to his childhood interest in one-man bands and began playing solo with "The Machine," which he created. He he still performs with The Machine regularly on the West Coast and has released a CD of original compositions. He also creates his own instruments.

His art awards include a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 1977 and a New Talent Purchase Grant from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  He received a National Endowment Grant in 1986 and received an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in art in 2008.  He has exhibited his work extensively including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City and the Art Institute of Chicago. His work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, and others.