"I was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and my family lived in Iowa. They were farmers. After losing their crops to an ice storm, and as a result their farm, they moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. There in Albuquerque they raised cows and chickens and goats on a little farm. I had the job taking care of these little animals, I raised these animals as a child. When I was working with them, I could sort of talk to them. They were my friends. I understood them, and they understood me. And I liked that. " - John Kearney One day in the 1950s, Kearney brought a pile of chrome auto bumpers home from a local garbage dump. Tossing them on the ground in his studio, he saw in the pile of metal a ballerina's shape and created just such a sculpture. His course was set. Car bumpers were to become his medium. His skills are said to have been developed during World War II as a U.S. Navy sailor while performing underwater repair of naval vessels. Kearney continued to create sculptures from chrome auto bumpers, most of them in the shape of animals.