Solon Borglum was born in Utah and spent most of his childhood on the Nebraska prairie where his father practiced medicine. He started out as a cowboy-rancher, but his older brother Gutzon, who sculpted Mount Rushmore, persuaded him to pursue art.

At the age of five, Mahonri Young modeled his first clay sculptures while recovering from appendicitis.

Robert Hudson grew up in rural Washington State and moved to San Francisco to attend college. Hudson was influenced by the city’s ceramic artists, whose brightly colored works combine traditional craft and sculpture.