Featherstone graduated from art school and went to work as a designer for Union Products, a Leominster, Mass., company that manufactures flat plastic lawn ornaments. He designed the pink flamingo in 1957 as a follow up project to his plastic duck. Today, Featherstone is president and part owner of the company that sells an average of 250,000 to 500,000 plastic pink flamingos a year. I did it to keep from starving.
Most artists have to die before anybody ever notices they've done anything good.
I'm lucky you didn't wait that long. Don Featherstone, on accepting a prize for creating the plastic pink flamingo.