American painter and sculptor. Born in White Russia, he immigrated to America in 1904. A self-taught artist, he began carving during the Depression when he could not afford paint or canvas, using found materials, such as driftwood, rails, and old fence posts. In the late 1930's and 40's he began painting "memory paintings", recreations of his boyhood experiences of life in the ghettos and surrounding areas of the woodlands and marshes of White Russia.