T. J. Starr was among the third generation of his family born in eastern Montana.  His grandfather was a circuit riding supervisor of education for the county.  Starr was educated in Billings, Montana and built his first sculpture while in high school.  This piece proved so successful that it made the local paper!  Why he never produced another piece for twenty years is open to speculation.  After a mutually fatiguing assault on higher education, higher education called a truce.  

Mr. Starr was now free to become a sailor, a chauffeur, a barker in a topless bar in San Francisco, a hotel manager and other lesser callings.  In 1978 T. J. resumed his high school career as a sculptor.  Since that time, his craft has migrated as far as England, New Zealand, Harvard University and Time-Life books in Alexandria, Virginia.

His subject has always been people.  Some people sit in repose, some caught in violent action, some bemused by their own unlikely survival.  Starr, not unlike T. S. Elliot, has never given up on his day job.  T. J. lives in Billings and quietly cultivates a few friendly acquaintances and looks towards the future with an historians skeptical eye.