The Vliet family lived at this home in Los Angeles when Don was born. He was an artistically-inclined child and began to paint and sculpt at the age of 3.
When Don was 9 years old, he won a children's sculpting competition organized for the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park by sculptor Agostinho Rodrigues.
During the 1950s, Don continued to work with Rodrigues, who considered him a child prodigy. Eventually, Vliet was offered several art scholarships, including one from Knudsen Creamery to travel to Europe and study marble sculpture for 6 years. The Vliet family was hesitant, and Don turned all the scholarships down.
At the age of 13, the Vliet family moved to the Mojave Desert town of Lancaster, CA. Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa would end up attending the same high school there.
