Iconic Plastic Pink Flamingo Sculptor Dies

The artist most widely known for his 1957 plastic pink flamingo died on Monday. Don Featherstone, a sculptor, studied art at the Worchester Art Museum in Massachusetts and much to the chagrin of his professors took a job making three-dimensional plastic lawn ornaments at Union Products in nearby Leominster and the rest as they say is history. The Sears catalog offered the birds, one standing and the other foraging, for $2.76 a pair and included the instructions: “Place in garden, lawn, to beautify landscape.” Featherstone kept 57 plastic flamingos on his front lawn at his home in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.