Married to fellow sculptor Dorothy Dehner (1901-1994), David Smith generated innovative directions with his modernist steel sculptures. As a teenager, the artist worked at an automobile factory, where he found his passion for industrial materials. The shop floor shaped Smith. He hired union members for his studio, was a member of the Steelworkers union, and had lifelong leftist politics. His experience as a welder and ironmonger influenced his sculpture. In a notebook from c. 1950, Smith wrote: "I follow no set procedure in starting a sculpture. Some works start out as chalk drawing on the cement floor with cut steel forms working into the drawings. When it reaches the stage that the structure can become united, it is welded into position upright."